Thomas v. Clark

In dispute is a Windsor Superior Court decision that the development of a spring on a servient estate subsequent to the grant by deed of the spring rights themselves cannot serve to deprive the owner of the dominant estate of his right to use the newly developed spring.

The trial court’s findings of fact, unchallenged on appeal, disclose that the defendant, Karl Clark, acquired by deed dated December 16,1970, a small parcel of land in Sharon, Vermont. With this parcel was the right to take water from a spring on the “Welch Farm”, north of the acquired parcel. Title to that part of the Welch…