The Black’s Law Dictionary, 7th edition defines Easement as an interest in land owned by another person, constituting in the right to use or control the land or an area above or below it for a specific limited purpose (such as to cross it for access to a public road). The land benefiting from an easement is called the servant estate. Unlike a lease or license an easement may last forever but it does not give the holder the right to possess, take from, improve or sell the land”.
It is a right annexed to land to utilise, make use of or enjoy another land owned by another person in a particular manner. The land taking these benefits of another land is called the servant estate, while the land that is yielding the benefit to another land is called the dominant estate. See Okonzua V. Amosu (1992) 6 NWLR (Pt. 248) 416 @ 436; Defacto Bakeries & Catering Ltd. Ajilore (1974) 1 All NLR 11 page 385 @ 392. It is not regarded as a real property that can be purchased but rather right appurtenant to a real property. It may arise by express understanding between neighbours, it may be just implied or created by Statute. It may be a right of having access through another person’s land into your own; right (not to be blocked or prevented from having) having light or air into your land, or water safely passing from your land through another’s property. See Olusanya V. Osinleye (2013) 12 NWLR (Pt. 1367) 148.