Fore! Warned Is Forearmed

A remand from the Georgia Supreme Court  in a dispute over a golf course easement

A resort community in North Georgia includes a golf course next to a subdivision. The current owner of the resort wants to redevelop the golf course into a residential property, and several homeowners in the subdivision sued to stop it. The trial court concluded that the homeowners had an easement in the golf course and granted a permanent injunction preventing the course from being put to any other use, and the Court of Appeals affirmed.

We granted certiorari and now vacate the Court of Appeals’ decision and remand for further proceedings. Both courts below concluded that the homeowners acquired an easement in the golf course because their lots were bought with reference to a subdivision plat that designated a “golf course” next to the subdivision. That conclusion relied on a long line of our decisions recognizing that easements in features like streets, parks, and lakes could be acquired on this basis, which amounts to an easement by express grant. But golf courses are different. Given the wide range of interests that an easement in a golf course could possibly include— interests in a view, access, use, or enjoyment, to name a few—merely designating a “golf course” on a subdivision plat and selling lots with reference to the plat cannot give reasonable certainty as to the scope of a claimed easement. And unlike with streets and parks, we are not aware of longstanding and settled expectations about golf courses from which intent to grant easements of reasonably certain
scope may be inferred. So, although subdivision owners might be able to acquire an easement in a given adjacent golf course, the intent to convey such an interest must be shown through evidence based in the relevant documents taken as a whole, rather than presumed based on the golf course’s mere designation on a plat. For these reasons and more set out below, we vacate the contrary decision below and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

(Mike Frisch)