Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

First, I would say I consider your neighbor's actions as inappropriate under any state of the law or interpretation of the easement, and very possibly dangerous. I think your first line of thinking has to be for your personal safety and the safety of your property, whatever the technical legal situation may be.

Next, while I can give you some general legal advice, I think handling your specific situation is going to require some hands-on assistance from someone who is familiar with your easement judgment and perhaps with the neighbor. Whether this could be your former attorney who represented you in obtaining the judgment, a new local lawyer, or the sheriff, I don't know. Nevertheless, I'd be very cautious about going it alone.

As to your right to park on the easement, California cases are "all over the map" on this question. Generally, the trend of cases is to decide whether ingress and egress rights also include a right to park on the basis of general overall reasonableness of the burden such parking places on the easement. For example, parking wasn't allowed on a 12-foot wide easement, the court noting that modern cars are often about six feet wide, making passing a parked car dicey or impossible. However, on a 60-foot wide ingress/egress easement, parking was a normal permissible use, see Heath v. Kettenhofen (1965) 236 Cal.App.2d 197. I'd also suggest reviewing the specific wording of the judgment, including its findings of fact and reasoning, to see what the court is likely to say.

Finally, I'd show your judgment to a sheriff's department representative and ask whether they can give you assistance in access based on the judgment alone, or whether you need a further order of the court.

The short answer is, "Yes, you have to sue again." What you have to sue for and what relief you are entitled to is less clear. The key question is whether or not you recorded the judgment. A bare judgment that is not recorded gives you no rights against a subsequent purchaser for value without notice. It also gives you no immediate rights against a subsequent owner even if they have knowledge, and/or do not give full value for the property. This is because record title shows no easement until the judgment is recorded, and even if you record the judgment now, it is junior to the new owner's title. So unless either the current owner of the servient tenement was individually named along with the entity owner, or the judgment was recorded before he took ownership, record title shows him owning free and clear of any easement. If that is the case, then you have to sue him all over again to establish your easement by proving he was an owner/participant in the entity and had actual notice of the judgment, or alternatively you can probably get an easement on the same grounds as you did against the entity even if he can dispute knowledge. You will then be able to enforce the easement against him (and all future owners and claimants if you record it this time).

If you DID record the judgment before he took title, and/or he was individually named, then you have to sue for money damages and an injunction against interference with the easement. Odd as it may sound, until you have an injunction against interference with your easement rights, law enforcement officers have nothing to enforce because they only enforce court orders, not judgments creating title rights.

As for the harassment, what kind of orders you can get depend on what admissible evidence you have. It's pretty hard to prove who shot holes in your tank days or weeks before you discover it. If you have the wherewithal, and can determine the angle or location the shots come from, it might be worth it to place some sort of sound or motion activated camera up.

If you need further assistance, I have over 25 years of real estate litigation esperience, including the better part of a decade as a Vice President and Associate General Counsel to Fidelity National Title Ins. Co. and Chicago Title, and I have litigated dozens of these easement interference cases, as well as mediating dozens more. I practice throughout the state, and maintain facilities in Southern California to serve clients in your area. Feel free to contact me if I can be of service.

You would most likely have to sue the new owner, but I urge you to speak to a competent real estate attorney and have him or her review the case in detail, including the prior lawsuit.