Neighbor refuses to grant easement for powerline to new home next door.

[Xithras]

19. They do when it crosses the middle of the property.

Easements usually run along the edge of the property and are set when the neighborhood is constructed. In this case, they want to plant a new pole and run a new cable right across the middle of this guys backyard decades after his home was built, to accommodate a new building on a previously empty lot next door. They're not using an existing easement, and the power company can't simply create a new easement across the middle of your property. It could, in theory, file an eminent domain case against the landowner to try and seize a new one, but it's unheard of for a California utility to try something like that just to benefit a single customer (and the utility would still have to pay money to the landowner...eminent domain easements aren't "free&quot .