Describing the Three Easements

As I spent days pouring over the documents from Fidelity National Title Insurance Company trying to find out what had actually happened - I occasionally got a glimmer of what was really going on behind the scenes.  I am over the next few days going to chronicle what happened using the documents they provided and I will let you draw your own conclusions.

But first it is important to illustrate the three easements to the subject property:

This map was prepared by a Fidelity Title Officer for Claims Counsel #3.  I did add the color to make it easier to identify the three easements.

The green easement (which actually continues along the curved property line to Mt. Veeder Road in Napa County) is the only deeded easement at this time.  It comes up through the former Chateau Potelle Winery including the facility for the manufacture of wine and the tasting room making this a commercial/manufacturing entrance to the property.

The pink (dotted) easement to Mt. Veeder Road in Napa County is the northern residential easement and is the easement that apparently should not have been included in the Grant Deed but still indeed may run with the land - I will explain this more later.

The short easement outlined in blue is the prescriptive easement to Cavedale Road in Sonoma County.  This is the easement that PGP Valuation from Boise Idaho valued at $3500 to obtain as a substitute for the residential (pink) easement for the "Cost to Cure" valuation.  His methodology was a square foot calculation (length X width) and then using that figure to his estimation of value per acre.  Needless to say I felt this was not comparable as this easement a) I already had and was using, b) it is obviously much shorter, and c) it leads to a different road in a different county than the lost easement.