Open-Source Property: A Free Casebook
first Edition
Open-Source Property: A Free Casebook
Open Source Property: A Free Casebook is a free resource for instructors and students of the first-year Property Law course at American law schools, and anyone else with an interest in the subject.
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Open Source Property is copyright 2015-17 by Stephen Clowney, James Grimmelmann, Michael Grynberg, Jeremy Sheff, and Rebecca Tushnet. It may be reused under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. More specifically:
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Build Author: Jeremy Sheff
Build Date: August 2017
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Chapter One Ownership
1.1 - The Right to Exclude
1.1.1 - Jacque v. Steenberg Homes, Inc.
1.1.2 - State of New Jersey v. Shack
1.1.3 - Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title II, Section 201
1.1.4 - Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Section 302-03
1.2 - Other Rights of Ownership
1.2.1 - Eyerman v. Mercantile Trust Co.
1.3 - So What Is Property?
1.3.1 - Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld, Some Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning
1.3.2 - Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld, Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning
1.3.3 - Thomas W. Merrill & Henry E. Smith, What Happened to Property in Law and Economics?
1.3.4 - Henry E. Smith, Property as the Law of Things
Chapter Two Subject Matter of Property
2.1 - Introduction
2.1.1 - Hinman v. Pacific Air Transport
2.2 - Property in Persons
2.2.1 - The Amistad
2.2.2 - Emancipation and Compensation
2.2.3 - Owning Labor
2.2.4 - Alternatives To Property
2.2.5 - Body Parts
2.3 - Intangible Property
2.3.1 - Kremen v. Cohen
2.3.2 - United States v. Turoff
2.4 - Intellectual Property
Chapter Three Allocation
3.1 - Initial Allocation of Chattels
3.1.1 - Pierson v. Post
3.1.2 - Ghen v. Rich
3.1.3 - Popov v. Hayashi
3.2 - Allocation of Land
3.2.1 - William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England
3.2.2 - Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
3.2.3 - William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England
3.2.4 - John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government
3.2.5 - Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
3.2.6 - Johnson v. M’Intosh
3.2.7 - Mabo v. Queensland (No. 2) [“Mabo’s Case”]
3.3 - Ratione Soli and Fugitive Resources: When Chattels Meet Land
3.3.1 - Wild Animals on Owned Land
3.3.2 - Other Fugitive Resources: Water, Oil, and Gas
3.4 - Allocation of Intangibles
3.4.1 - Tribune Co. v. Oak Leaves Broadcasting Station
Chapter Four Property Torts and Crimes
4.1 - Real Property
4.2 - Personal Property
4.2.1 - The Major Common-Law Property Torts: A Summary
Chapter Five Found and Stolen Property
5.1 - Armory v. Delamirie
5.2 - Other Variations on Armory
5.3 - McAvoy v. Medina
Chapter Six Adverse Possession
6.1 - Adverse Possession Rationales
6.1.1 - Tieu v. Morgan
6.2 - “Hostility” and Intent
6.2.1 - Cahill v. Morrow
6.2.2 - Dombkowski v. Ferland
6.3 - Finer Points of Adverse Possession Law
6.4 - Adverse Possession of Chattels
6.4.1 - O’Keeffe v. Snyder
6.4.2 - The New York Mess
Chapter Seven Bailments and Liens
7.1 - Allen v. Hyatt Regency-Nashville Hotel
7.2 - Williams v. Ford Motor Credit Co.
7.3 - M&I Western State Bank v. Wilson
Chapter Eight Improvers and Good-Faith Purchasers
8.1 - Wetherbee v. Green
8.2 - Uniform Commercial Code §§ 2-312, 2-403
8.3 - Kotis v. Nowlin Jewelry, Inc.
8.4 - Note on Negotiability
Chapter Nine Estates and Future Interests
9.1 - Introduction
9.2 - Concepts, Vocabulary, and Conventions
9.3 - Basic Estates and Future Interests
9.3.1 - The Fee Simple Absolute
9.3.2 - The Life Estate
9.3.3 - The Reversion
9.3.4 - The Remainder
9.4 - Construing Ambiguous Grants
9.4.1 - In the Estate of Dalton Edward Craigen
9.5 - Present vs. Future: The Doctrine of Waste
9.5.1 - Jackson v. Brownson
9.5.2 - A Note on Ameliorative Waste
Chapter Ten More Complex Estates Problems: Strategy and Method
10.1 - Step 1: Building A Chronology
10.2 - Step 2.a.i: Parsing a Conveyance
10.3 - Step 2.a.ii: Identifying Legal Interests
10.3.1 - Identifying the Quantum of an Interest
10.3.2 - Identifying the Nature of an Interest
10.3.3 - Possessory Estates vs. Future Interests
10.3.4 - Reviewing Familiar Interests
10.4 - Step 2.a.iii: Identifying Residual Interests
10.5 - Step 2.b: Construing the Effects of Events on Legal Interests
10.6 - Step 3: Building a Chain of Title
10.7 - Other Estates and Future Interests
10.7.1 - Remainders, Part 2: Vested and Contingent Remainders
10.7.2 - Remainders, Part 3: Alternative Contingent Remainders
10.7.3 - The Defeasible Fees
10.7.4 - Remainders, Part 4: Divestment of Future Interests; Types of Vested Reminders
10.8 - Future Interests Summary and Review
Chapter Eleven Preserving Marketability
11.1 - Ford v. Allen
11.2 - Wills v. Pierce
11.3 - Smedley v. City of Waldron
Chapter Twelve Trusts and Corporations
12.1 - Trusts
12.1.1 - Note on Trusts
12.1.2 - Rothko v. Reis (In re Estate of Rothko)
12.2 - Corporations
12.2.1 - Walkovszky v. Carlton
Chapter Thirteen Co-ownership and Marital Property
13.1 - Types of Co-Ownership: Introduction
13.1.1 - U.S. v. Craft
13.2 - Tenancy in Common
13.2.1 - Rights and Duties of Tenants in Common
13.2.2 - Partition
13.3 - Joint Tenancy
13.3.1 - Creating a Joint Tenancy
13.3.2 - Severance of a Joint Tenancy
13.4 - Marital Interests
13.4.1 - Tenancy by the Entirety
13.4.2 - Community Property
Chapter Fourteen Leasing Real Property
14.1 - The Dual Nature of the Lease
14.2 - Creating the Leasehold
14.2.1 - A Lease or Something Else?
14.2.2 - Types of Leasehold
14.2.3 - The Problem of Holdovers
14.2.4 - Tenant Selection
14.3 - Exiting a Lease
14.3.1 - Landlord Exit: Transfer
14.3.2 - Tenant Exit: Transfer
14.3.3 - Tenant Exit: Limiting the Right to Transfer
14.3.4 - Tenant Exit: Abandonment and the Duty to Mitigate
14.3.5 - Tenant Exit: Eviction
14.3.6 - Tenant Exit: Security Deposits
14.4 - The Quest for Clean, Safe, and Affordable Premises
14.4.1 - The Covenant of Quiet Enjoyment
14.4.2 - The Implied Warranty of Habitability
14.4.3 - Retaliatory Eviction
14.4.4 - Landlord’s Tort Liability
14.4.5 - Gentrification & Rent Control
14.5 - Wrapping Up
14.5.1 - Residential Rental Agreement and Contract
Chapter Fifteen Gifts
15.1 - Intent
15.2 - Delivery
15.2.1 - In re Estate of Evans
15.2.2 - Gruen v. Gruen
15.3 - Acceptance
15.4 - Irrevocability of Gifts and Exceptions
15.4.1 - Gifts causa mortis.
15.4.2 - Conditional gifts
15.5 - Review Problems
Chapter Sixteen Wills and Intestacy
16.1 - Lon L. Fuller, Consideration and Form
16.2 - John H. Langbein, Substantial Compliance with the Wills Act
16.3 - Stevens v. Casdorph
16.4 - Maryland Code, Estates and Trusts, §§ 3-101 to 3-104
Chapter Seventeen Land Transactions
17.1 - Indiana Code Title 32, Art. 21
17.2 - Harding v. Ja Laur
17.3 - Walters v. Tucker
17.4 - Loughran v. Kummer
17.5 - New York Real Property Law § 258
17.6 - McMurray v. Housworth
17.7 - Engelhart v. Kramer
17.8 - Brush Grocery Kart, Inc. v. Sure Fine Market, Inc.
Chapter Eighteen Foreclosures and the Mortgage Crisis
18.1 - Introduction: What is a Mortgage?
18.2 - Crystals and Mud in Property Law
18.2.1 - Carol M. Rose, Crystals And Mud In Property Law
18.3 - The Rise of Mortgage Securitization
18.3.1 - Adam J. Levitin, The Paper Chase: Securitization, Foreclosure, and the Uncertainty of Mortgage Title 1
18.4 - Predatory Lending
18.4.1 - McGlawn v. Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission
18.5 - The Mortgage Crisis
18.6 - Foreclosure Abuses
18.6.1 - Klem v. Washington Mutual Bank
18.7 - Chain of Title Problems
18.7.1 - U.S. Bank National Association, trustee vs. Antonio Ibanez
18.7.2 - Note on Subsequent Purchasers
18.8 - An Additional Puzzle Piece: The Mortgage and the Note
18.9 - What Now?
18.10 - Concluding Thoughts
Chapter Nineteen Recording Acts
19.1 - Carol M. Rose, Crystals And Mud In Property Law
19.2 - Argent Mortgage Co. v. Wachovia Bank N.A.
19.3 - Fla. Stat. § 695.01
19.4 - N.C. Stat. § 47-18
19.5 - Alaska Stat. § 40.17.080
19.6 - Hartig v. Stratman
19.7 - Board of Education of Minneapolis v. Hughes
19.8 - Adam J. Levitin, The Paper Chase: Securitization, Foreclosure, and the Uncertainty of Mortgage Title
19.9 - Note on Recording Systems and Informal Title
Chapter Twenty Nuisance
20.1 - The Problem of Nuisance Definition
20.1.1 - Puritan Holding Co. v Holloschitz
20.2 - Adjudicating Nuisance
20.2.1 - Sans v. Ramsey Golf & Country Club, Inc.
20.2.2 - Note on the Clarity of Rights and Coase
20.3 - Remedies
20.3.1 - Boomer v. Atlantic Cement Co.
20.3.2 - Note on “Property Rules” and “Liability Rules”
20.3.3 - Spur Industries, Inc. v. Del E. Webb Development Co.
Chapter Twenty-one Zoning
21.1 - Euclidean Zoning
21.1.1 - The Euclid Decision and Its History
21.1.2 - Euclidean Zoning Theory
21.1.3 - How Zoning Works (and Doesn’t)
21.1.4 - Two examples.
21.2 - Nonconforming Uses, Variances and Exceptions
21.2.1 - Nonconforming uses
21.2.2 - Variances
21.2.3 - Special exceptions and zoning amendments
Chapter Twenty-two Easements
22.1 - What is an easement?
22.2 - Creating Easements
22.2.1 - Express easements
22.2.2 - Implied Easements
22.2.3 - Prescriptive Easements
22.2.4 - Irrevocable Licenses
22.3 - Transferring Easements
22.4 - Terminating Easements
22.5 - Negative Easements/Conservation Easements
22.6 - Public Use Rights
22.6.1 - Lawrence v. Clark Cnty.
22.6.2 - Matthews v. Bay Head Imp. Ass’n
Chapter Twenty-three Restrictive Covenants
23.1 - Introduction
23.1.1 - Tulk v. Moxhay
23.2 - Creation of an Enforceable Restrictive Covenant
23.2.1 - Neponsit Prop. Owners’ Ass’n v. Emigrant Indus. Sav. Bank
23.2.2 - Restatement (Third) of Property (Servitudes)
23.2.3 - Shelley v. Kraemer
23.3 - Modification and Termination of Covenants
23.3.1 - El Di, Inc. v. Town of Bethany Beach
Chapter Twenty-four Common-Interest Communities
24.1 - In General
24.1.1 - Homeowners Associations
24.1.2 - Condominiums
24.1.3 - Cooperatives
24.2 - Rulemaking Authority
24.2.1 - Hidden Harbour Estates, Inc. v. Norman
24.2.2 - Nahrstedt v. Lakeside Village Condominium Assoc., Inc.
24.3 - Enforcement of Rules and Covenants by Common-Interest Communities
24.3.1 - 40 West 67th Street v. Pullman
Chapter Twenty-five Takings
25.1 - Rationales
25.2 - “Public Use”
25.2.1 - Kelo v. City of New London, Conn.
25.3 - Eminent Domain Operations
25.4 - Just Compensation
25.5 - Regulatory Takings
25.5.1 - Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon
25.5.2 - Penn Cent. Transp. Co. v. City of New York
25.6 - “Wipeouts”
25.6.1 - Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council
25.7 - Intellectual Property
25.8 - Exactions
25.8.1 - Dolan v. City of Tigard
25.8.2 - Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management Dist.