Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

That will depend entirely on the terms of the easment, the configuration of the easement relative to the two properties, and to some extent the history of use of the easement.

I general, an easement means you can travel over a piece of land wilthout getting the permission of the person owilng the land. But you can not block the land from that other person's use because you then have complete control of the land and not merely the right to travel over the land. If you will give your neighbor access to the security gate, why would they object to giving you permission to install it?

I agree with Mr. Shers. Although you have an easement, which is the right to use your neighbor's land in the scope of the easement, it is not an exclusive right. The owner of the servient tenement still has a right to use the land that is burdened by the easement, as long as that use does not interfere or obstruct your use of the easement.

Conversely, you cannot take steps to block his access and use of the land burdened by the easement.

All three of the previous answers are correct statements of the law, but Mr. McCormick's may be the best answer to your question, as asked.

Usually, it is the owner of the LAND who wants to install a gate, and the holder of the EASEMENT is objecting because opening and closing the gate will slow him down. Here, it seems you are presenting the opposite situation. You are the holder of the easement, and the objecting party is the landowner (the "dominant tenement" and the "servient tenement," respectively).

In the usual case, which is frequently litigated, courts are inclined to allow the gate to be installed when it serves a valid purpose and the benefit to the lansowner outweighs the detriment to the easement holder. If, for example, the land is a ranch and fences and gates are necessary to restrain cattle, a gate would probably be allowable. Preventing use of the easement by an occasional trespasser would present a much weaker argument and the court might order a gate serving only that purpose to be removed from the easement.

In your case, which seems unusual, we are somewhat hampered in giving you a specific answer because we do not know where the proposed gate would be in relation to the public road vs. your property, whose property the gate would actually be installed upon, whether the installation of the gate would result in enclosing any land (and if it did, whose), nor the history and documentation of the easement or the need for the gate at this time.

I would say the main issues would be whether the gate limits the land owner's (servient tenement's) access and use of his property, and the easement owner's need or justification for the gate. If the easement was created by an express (written) grant, the wording of the granting language would also be important.

In general, the grant of an easement for a particular purpose (such as for ingress and egress) also includes the implied right to make improvements necessary for realistic use of the easement, such as paving, ditches, culverts, etc. that the makers of the easement probably intended or assumed would be needed to effectuate the easement purposes. Possibly the proposed gate falls into this category. However, an easement is a limited right to use someone else's land and is non-exclusive. Hence, gates and fences that tend to excude the property owner from freely accessing parts of his property are disfavored.