Williams Bros. Inc. of Marshfield v. Peck

A cranberry-bog parcel (parcel A) held easement rights over an adjoining parcel (parcel B), including rights of way, to take sand, to build bog houses, and to cut shading trees. The two parcels once came under a single owner and were later split again: parcel A went to the Pecks (defendants), whose deed and registration certificate listed the easements, and parcel B went to Williams Brothers (plaintiff). When the Pecks removed sand and cut trees on the Williams land, Williams sued, arguing the easement had been extinguished by the earlier common ownership. The land court ruled for Williams and struck the easement language from the Pecks' certificate; the Pecks appealed.

Whether the common-law doctrine of merger can extinguish easement rights even though those rights remain listed on the servient parcel owner's certificate of registered title.