Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: retail business on private property w/easement

The amount of increased use that will overburden an access easement is very fact-driven and only long experience and reading a lot of cases can give one a decent shot at predicting how a judge might decide a suit to have the easement injunctively limited or even terminated due to the overburden.

I'd say the case you describe sits on the borderline. Favoring the neighbor is the fact that the grant or reservation of easement clearly contemplates some increased use in the future, through subdivision or subdivisions. On the other hand, the burden imposed by a retail operation can be much greater than any subdivision the grantor of the easement may have had in mind. The court would consider evidence as to the length, width and quality of the easement and any road on it, whether the retail operation was a forseeable use of the land at the time the easement was created, and on and on.

The fact that the retailer opened up without permits may be a strike against him; more important might be whether permits can be obtained if an application is made, the zoning and planning status and history of the parcel, and other such factors.

This could go either way.