Sharp v. Downey’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 district · 14 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “An easement can be described as a right of the owner of the dominant estate—often, a right of way—over the real property that comprises the servient estate. In other words: “A dominant tenant is the owner of ‘[a]n estate that benefits from an easement’; a servient tenant is the owner of ‘[a]n estate burdened by an easement.’ ” ... [T]here are several ways to create an easement. “An easement may be created by express grant, by reservation in a conveyance of land, or by implication.” An express easement, whether by grant or reservation, must be created by a written memorandum that satisfies the Statute of Frauds; and “a right[] of way created by deed” must satisfy “ ‘the mode and manner prescribed by the recording statutes.’ ” ... In contrast, an easement by implication “ ‘may be created in a variety of ways, such as by prescription, necessity, the filing of plats, estoppel and implied grant or reservation where a quasi-easement has existed while the two tracts are one.’ ””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Bacon v. Arey · 205 Md. App. 270 - Annapolis Roads Property Owners Ass'n v. Lindsay

2. “arisejs] from a presumption that the parties intended that the party needing the easement should have access over the land.... The doctrine of easement by necessity is based upon public policy, which is favorable to full utilization of land and the prescription that parties do not intend to render land unfit for occupancy. The public policy exists in recognition that to allow a landlocked parcel inadvertently to be created affects not only the initial owner of that parcel, but every subsequent owner as well. By cutting off the land from all access to public ways, landlocking a parcel renders the land unuseable for virtually any future purpose.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Bacon v. Arey · 203 Md. App. 495 - Purnell v. Beard & Bone, LLC

3. ““In construing the language of a deed, the basic principles of contract interpretation apply. The grant of an easement by deed is strictly construed.... The extent of an easement created by an express grant depends upon a proper construction of the conveyance by which the easement was created----“The primary rule for the construction of contracts generally—and the rule is applicable to the construction of an easement—is that a court should ascertain and give effect to the intention of the parties at the time the contract was made, if that be possible.” ...” “A court construing an agreement under this test must first determine from the language of the agreement itself what a reasonable person in the position of the parties would have meant at the time it was effectuated. In addition, when the language of the contract is plain and unambiguous there is no room for construction, and a court must presume that the parties meant what they expressed. In these circumstances, the true test of what is meant is not what the parties to the contract intend it to mean, but what a reasonable person in the position of the parties would have thought it meant. Consequently, the clear and unambiguous language of an agreement will not give [way] to what the parties thought the agreement meant or intended it to mean.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Bacon v. Arey