Property Law

127 flashcards by MentisLibrary

Real and personal property in United States law: estates and future interests, concurrent ownership, landlord and tenant, easements and servitudes, adverse possession, land sales, recording acts, mortgages and land use regulation.

What separates real property from personal property?
Real property is land, whatever is permanently attached to it, and the interests carved out of it. Personal property is everything else, whether a tangible chattel or an intangible right.
What is a fixture?
A chattel attached to land so closely that it is treated as part of the realty and passes with a conveyance of the land unless the deed says otherwise.
What is the trade fixture rule?
A commercial tenant may remove fixtures installed for the tenant's trade or business before the lease term ends, and must repair the damage caused by removal.
What rights does a finder of lost property have?
A finder has rights superior to everyone except the true owner and, in some settings, the owner of the land where the item was found.
Lost, mislaid, or abandoned: how do the three differ?
Lost property is parted with unintentionally. Mislaid property is set down deliberately and then forgotten. Abandoned property is given up with intent to relinquish all rights.
Who gets mislaid property?
The owner or occupier of the premises where it was found holds it for the true owner, because the true owner is likely to come back for it.
What are the three elements of a valid gift of personal property?
Present donative intent, delivery, and acceptance. Acceptance is presumed when the gift has value.
What is constructive or symbolic delivery?
Handing over the means of access, or an object representing the gift, when actual manual delivery is impractical.
What is a gift causa mortis?
A gift made in contemplation of imminent death from a specific peril, which is revoked automatically if the donor recovers or dies from a different cause.
What is a bailment?
The rightful possession of another person's chattel by someone who is not the owner, with a duty to return it or dispose of it as directed.
What standard of care does a bailee owe?
Traditionally the standard depends on who benefits: slight care when the bailment benefits only the bailor, ordinary care for mutual benefit, and great care when it benefits only the bailee.
Can title to a stolen chattel pass to an innocent buyer?
No. A thief has void title and can pass none, so the true owner can recover from even a good faith purchaser.
When does the clock start on a claim to recover a stolen work of art?
States split. Some use a discovery rule that starts the period when the owner knew or reasonably should have known the location of the work. New York uses a demand and refusal rule, so the period starts only when the owner demands return and is refused.
What is a fee simple absolute?
The largest possessory estate, of potentially infinite duration, freely transferable during life and at death, with no future interest following it.
What is a fee simple determinable and what follows it?
A fee that ends automatically when a stated event occurs, leaving a possibility of reverter in the grantor.
What is a fee simple subject to condition subsequent?
A fee that the grantor may cut short by exercising a right of entry, also called a power of termination, after a stated condition occurs. It does not end by itself.
What is a fee simple subject to an executory limitation?
A defeasible fee that, on the stated event, passes automatically to a third party rather than back to the grantor. The third party holds an executory interest.
What is a life estate, and what is a life estate pur autre vie?
A life estate lasts for the life of its holder. A life estate pur autre vie is measured by the life of someone other than the holder.
What are the three kinds of waste a life tenant can commit?
Affirmative waste, from voluntary acts that reduce value; permissive waste, from failing to maintain, pay taxes or make ordinary repairs; and ameliorative waste, from changes that increase value but alter the character of the property.
Reversion, possibility of reverter, right of entry: which follows which estate?
A reversion follows a life estate or lesser estate. A possibility of reverter follows a fee simple determinable. A right of entry follows a fee simple subject to condition subsequent.
What is a remainder, and what makes one vested?
A remainder is a future interest in a third party that becomes possessory naturally at the end of the prior estate. It is vested if it is given to an ascertained person and is not subject to a condition precedent.
What is a contingent remainder?
A remainder given to an unascertained person, or one subject to a condition precedent that must be satisfied before it can become possessory.
What is a vested remainder subject to open?
A class gift where at least one class member is ascertained and vested, but more members may still join and reduce each share.
What is the rule of convenience?
A class closes when any member is entitled to take possession, so later-born members are excluded, unless the grant clearly says otherwise.
How does a shifting executory interest differ from a springing one?
A shifting executory interest cuts short a prior estate in a transferee. A springing executory interest divests the grantor after a gap in possession.
State the common law Rule Against Perpetuities.
No interest is good unless it must vest, if at all, no later than 21 years after some life in being at the creation of the interest.
Which future interests does the Rule Against Perpetuities reach?
Contingent remainders, executory interests, vested remainders subject to open, and in many states options and rights of first refusal in gross.
What does the Uniform Statutory Rule Against Perpetuities do?
It validates an interest that either satisfies the common law rule or actually vests within 90 years of creation, and lets a court reform an instrument that would otherwise fail.
What was the Rule in Shelley's Case, and where does it stand today?
It merged a life estate and a remainder to the holder's heirs into a fee simple in the life tenant. It has been abolished in nearly every state.
What is the doctrine of worthier title?
A grant of a remainder to the grantor's own heirs is construed as a reversion in the grantor rather than a remainder in the heirs.