Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Minnesota
easement
We are servient owners of a 33' non-exclusive easement for ''road and utility purposes''. The dominant owner has 40 acres west of our property for hunting (no development yet). We planted about 75 trees on the easement(for a windbreak for future development of 15 acres)five feet north of his 12'(across)road which runs east to west 866'(long)in an orderly fashion. He has an additional 6' south of the 12' drive he is using now to go in and out. We planted the trees 10' from the property line as to not intrude on our north neighbors. He wants us to remove the trees and has started trial proceedings claiming the trees ''create a private nuisance as it interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of his easement rights and deprives him of use of his other land.'' There is nothing to hinder his ability to reach his land from the main road. Also, can we take this matter to small claims court to avoid the cost of going to trial? I hope the description is not too confusing to provide an answer to this problem. Thank you for your time. Brenda
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: easement
Without spending a lot of time in research first, my expectation would be that the owner of the easement has a right to have anything you put on the property which could prevent the full use of the easement removed. When I log on to Lexis and start reading case law, sometimes I'm surprised, however. I often find that what the law was last year is no longer the law now.
If your easement person has already started action in district court, there's no way I know of to remove it to conciliation court.
You need to find a competent attorney and consult concerning this. Does the fact that the trees right now are not interfering with anything make a difference? Possibly not, but it's hard to know for sure. You need someone who is good at finding loopholes - like me.
If I could work on this for three or four hours, I could probably tell you definitively whether you are screwed. Of course, that would not be entirely for free.
Good luck. My number is 952-544-6356
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