DRD Enterprises, LLC v. Flickema

Summary

The South Dakota Supreme Court considered whether a purported blanket easement sufficiently described the servient tenement to burden later purchasers' properties. The court held that the description “grantor’s land” did not identify the servient properties with sufficient certainty and affirmed summary judgment for the subsequent purchasers.

Holdings

1. An easement instrument must either describe the servient tenement with sufficient certainty or refer to another document that makes the property identifiable with certainty. The phrase "grantor's land" did neither and therefore was insufficient to create an easement burdening the Flickemas' Lot 5 or PSC's Lot 6.
2. An appeal from a final judgment permits review of prior orders and rulings that involve the merits and necessarily affect the final judgment.

Questions Presented

1. Whether an easement instrument describing the servient tenement only as "grantor's land" sufficiently identifies the burdened property to create an enforceable easement against subsequent purchasers.
2. Whether the South Dakota Supreme Court could review the circuit court's earlier interlocutory ruling on the sufficiency of the easement description when reviewing the final summary judgment.

Disposition

affirmed