According to the article, he built his house on the easement. Seems to me a pretty simple survey would have shown the problem and could have moved the house back.
Correct. But that seems to be a disputed point. As in the claim the tower and/or wires are not properly on the easement.
http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/us/2006/12/29/kirchner.ma.charged.house.wlne
Video of the story.
It doesn't look that close to the wires...