Public utility's expansion of easement over suburban lot is question of fact for jury

In the 1940s, AT & T was granted a 6 foot wide easement over a suburban lot owned by D'Andrea and Liverpool in Grosse Pointe Farms. In the 1970s, A T & T installed a "crossbox cabinet" in the right-of-way. In 2005, it installed additional cabinets on the property and planted shrubs around them. The homeowners filed suit alleging that A T & T's enhancements constituted an additional, unreasonable expansion of the easement and an unreasonable new burden on their property. Noting that "the use of an easement must be confined strictly to the purposes for which it was granted," the Court of Appeals reversed the judgment for AT & T entered by the trial court and sent the case back for trial to determine whether the added burden is "reasonable" under the law, even though it stayed within the original six foot parameter.