Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Public Drainage Easements

I've heard of public utility easements and drainage easements, but I'm not sure what you mean by a public drainage easement. This could either be an easement that benefits several parcels, it could be an easement in favor of a public entity, or it could simply be a piece of land that can't be obstructed by buildings by virtue of zoning or ordinance identifying it as a floodway. The first would be an "easement appurtenant," the second an "easement in gross," while the last wouldn't be an easement at all, but it would have a similar effect on the property owner.

Analyzing your situation must begin with determining the nature and terms of the beast.

Appurtenant easements have a benefitted parcel and a burdened parcel, e.g. neighbor X and neighbor Y. Easements in gross have a benefitted person and a burdened parcel, e.g. the electric company and 123 Main Street. In the third situation, you have a regulatory authority imposing rules affecting the use of parcels.

The next step is to see who is benefitted, that is, whose water can be discharged into the drainage easement. Keep in mind that it is a basic tenet of California water law that every property must receive the natural runoff from unaltered uphill parcels. A drainage easement is thus unnecessary for such natural runoff. When runoff is concentrated or redirected, however, I would say the uphill owner needs to make peace with the downhill owner bu acquiring an easement (or otherwise). An easement may be used only by the benefitted property (if it is an easement appurtenant) or by the easement owner in the case of an easement in gross. Which is it? In order to know for sure, one must read the grant or reservation creating the easement, and also know something about the surrounding circumstances.

I hope this provides you with a starting point. The law of easements isn't simple, and to further complicate things, when you say it is a "public drainage easement" this suggests that it isn't an easement at all, but possibly a zone protected from development by zoning, ordinance or the like because it is a natural intermittent watercourse.