This blog is a personal blog written to discuss legal issues affecting Georgia property, and how it is damaged, transferred, and fought over. I write this partly to keep abreast of the law, and partly to offer a forum for my writing. In order to find content, I often analyze Georgia Supreme Court decisions. I try to update this blog as I can, but writing is a time consuming process.
An easement in Georgia is a right that a person or company enjoys in relation to another person's property. Easements for storm water pipes, drainage courses, power lines, gas lines, driveways, and roads or access often exist on or across a property owner's property. Many times, these easements are recorded in the deed records maintained by a county. Where easements are recorded, the courts treat the easements as written contracts between the holder of the easement and the property owner across which the easement runs. Georgia courts have explained this principle as follows in a case involving a Georgia Power Company easement:
That written easement constitutes a contract, and express easements are construed by applying the rules of contract construction. Municipal Elec. Auth. of Ga. v. Gold–Arrow Farms, 276 Ga.App. 862, 866(1), 625 S.E.2d 57 (2005). “Generally, this [easement] presents a question of law for the court, unless the language presents an ambiguity that cannot be resolved by the rules of construction.” Id. In construing a contract, if the terms are clear and unambiguous, the court looks to the contract alone—the easement itself—to determine the parties' intent. Parris Properties v. Nichols, 305 Ga.App. 734, 738(1)(a), 700 S.E.2d 848 (2010).
Richardson v. Georgia Power Co. , 308 Ga. App. 341, 343, 708 S.E.2d 10, 12 (2011), reconsideration denied (Mar. 10, 2011).