Private Restrictions on Real Estate

Private Restrictions: Texas Express Pipeline
Assignment #2, Task #1

Even though real estate has several uses and owners in this world, there are of course rules and loopholes that apply to a variety of property. One sector of these are private restrictions. These restrictions can dictate how land is used or provide security and include covenants, liens, easements, and other types of restrictions. One particular private restriction I want to focus on is that of an easement.

An easement is a right given to one party by a landowner to use the real estate in a specified manner. Of this, there are 2 types of easements: Easement Appurtenant and Easement in Gross. The difference between these two types are distinguished by their applicability to either the Dominant Estate (the estate that benefits from the easement) or the Servient Estate (the estate that is burdened by the easement).

To better understand this, I found an interesting article from the San Antonio Express News that involves an industry I am extremely familiar with: Oil & Gas. This article, found here, is about a new expansion project from LaSalle Pipeline LP. This expansion project involves placing 52 miles of 16" pipe from the Eagle Ford Shale area across the state to various customers. While the pipeline company has eminent domain, they have run into several problems with landowners (the dominant estate) from which they need to obtain easements from. These easements will grant the pipeline the ability to cut across the parcels of land to obtain the routes needed to place this pipeline. As shale plays become more and more prevalent across the US, the need for pipelines will grow and situations similar as these will occur more frequently