Montana Code 76-7-211. Easement enforcement
76-7-211. Easement enforcement. (1) Environmental control easements may be enforced by injunction, specific performance, other proceedings in equity or at law, or any other means specified in the instrument creating the easement. In addition to any right specified in the easement instrument, representatives of the holder of the environmental control easement are entitled to enter the land in a reasonable manner and at reasonable times to ensure compliance with the terms and conditions of the easement and to implement, operate, maintain, and monitor all remedial work and technologies.
Terms Used In Montana Code 76-7-211
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- easement: means an easement created under this chapter that burdens an environmental control site, that runs with the land, and that is binding on the owner and subsequent owners, lessees, and other users of the land. See Montana Code 76-7-103
- Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Property: means real and personal property. See Montana Code 1-1-205
- site: means any site, including the surface and subsurface of the land and the surface and subsurface resources in, upon, or under the land, including, without limitation, minerals and water that may contain hazardous wastes or substances or that may require remediation, reclamation, or restoration pursuant to federal, state, or local law or regulation. See Montana Code 76-7-103
- Writing: includes printing. See Montana Code 1-1-203
(2)An environmental control easement is not unenforceable because of a lack of privity of estate or contract or a lack of benefit to particular land, because the easement is not an appurtenant easement, or because the easement is an easement in gross.
(3)An environmental control easement is enforceable against the owner of the fee and any persons or entities holding or claiming an interest in the property regardless of whether the interest is equal to or less than the whole fee estate.
(4)A delay or failure to enforce in any specific instance any violation of an environmental control easement does not preclude or waive the right to enforce against that violation or any other breach.
(5)The easement holder may waive, in a writing executed by the easement holder, any single violation of the terms of the environmental control easement without waiving any other prior or subsequent violation whether of the same or different nature. The easement holder may remedy a violation without waiving the violation remedied and is entitled to recover from the environmental control site owner all costs, including but not limited to direct and indirect costs of remedying the violation and costs of any other remedies provided by law or in the easement instrument.
(6)A claim or cause of action arising out of or relating to a violation of a term or provision of an environmental control easement must be filed in a court of appropriate jurisdiction within 10 years from the date upon which the party alleging violation of the easement had actual knowledge of the violation.