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511 So. 2d 652

511 So.2d 652

12 Fla.L.Weekly 1849

Docket No. 86-3025.

Stephens v. Dobbins

James T. STEPHENS and Sharon Stephens, His Wife, Appellants, v. Vernon C. DOBBINS and Yolanda Dobbins, His Wife, Appellees.

District Court of Appeal of Florida

Decided July 29, 1987.

Rehearing Denied August 25, 1987.

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 1987-07-29

Relies on 97 So. 2d 273 - Wiggins v. Lykes Bros., Inc. · Gelfand v. Mortgage Investors of Washington · Consolidated Gas Co. of Florida v. City Gas Co.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1987-07-29

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently June 2012

8 state decisions

301987199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1James V. Lau of Lau, Lane, Pieper & Asti, P.A., Tampa, for appellants.

¶2James D. Whittemore of Whittemore & Campbell, P.A. Tampa, for appellees.

¶3PATTERSON, DAVID F., Associate Judge.

¶4The owners of a partial interest in a parcel of real property appeal a judgment finding that the appellees have an exclusive easement over the land which precludes any use of the land by the landowners. We reverse.

¶5The general rule of law in Florida is that an instrument creating an easement *653 must be construed as creating a nonexclusive easement unless the instrument clearly shows an intention that the easement is to be exclusive. See Wiggins v. Lykes Brothers, Inc.,97 So.2d 273 (Fla. 1957); Gelfand v. Mortgage Investors of Washington,453 So.2d 897 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984); Consolidated Gas Co. v. City Gas Co.,447 So.2d 351 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984). The instrument creating the easement in this case stated only that it gave the easement owners "an easement for ingress and egress" over the particular parcel of land. Because the instrument did not specifically state that the easement was an exclusive easement, the instrument should be construed as having created a nonexclusive easement allowing appellants any use of the land which does not interfere with appellees' rights under the easement.

¶6Reversed and remanded for proceedings consistent herewith.

¶7DANAHY, C.J., and SCHEB, J., concur.

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