City of Pasadena v. California-Michigan Land & Water Co.
Supreme Court of California
110 P.2d 983 (Cal. 1941)
Pasadena (plaintiff) held five-foot-wide easements across various parcels for installing and maintaining water mains, with no deed language making the easements exclusive; California-Michigan Land & Water Co. (defendant) separately obtained easements from the same servient landowners and installed its own water mains within Pasadena's easement strips. The trial court found California-Michigan's mains did not unreasonably interfere with Pasadena's use and denied the city's request for an injunction to remove them; Pasadena appealed.
Whether a city that has an easement to place water mains within a five-foot strip of land may enjoin others from placing water mains within the strip, when there is no language of exclusivity in the deed and the additional water mains do not unreasonably interfere with the city's use of the easement.