PROPERTY C1 & E1 FALL 2010: SYLLABUS
Unit I: The Bundle of Sticks: Introduction to a Legal Understanding of Property
CHAPTER 1: An Important Stick: The Right to Exclude and Some Exceptions
A. Trespass
1. Notes on “The Right to Exclude” and “Trespass” (P53-54)
2. Jacque v. Steenberg Homes (Wisc. 1997) (P54-57)
B. Private Property Open to the Public
1. Background
a. Common Law Privileges: Notes 1-2 (P83-84)
b. Civil Rights Laws: Notes 4-5 (P84-85)
2. Undesirable Patrons: Brooks v. Chicago Downs Assn. (7th Cir. 1986) (P79-83)
3. Free Speech Access: N.J. Coalition v. J.M.B. Realty Corp. (N.J. 1994) (P85-92)
C. Private Property Not Open to the Public
1. Preventing Discrimination in Housing: Federal Fair Housing Act: Selected Provisions
2. Access to Migrant Agricultural Workers
a. State v. Shack (N.J. 1971) (S7-11)
b. Written Assignment #1
CHAPTER 2: The Statute of Limitations: Adverse Possession Doctrine
A. Introduction
1. Color of Title
2. Justifications for Adverse Possession (Note 1) (P108-10)
3. Sample Statutes: Florida & Pennsylvania
4. Sample Cases
a. VanValkenburgh v. Lutz (N.Y. 1952) (S17-23)
b. Ray v. Beacon Hudson Mountain Corp. (N.Y. 1996) (P102-05)
c. E. 13th St. Homesteader’s Coalition v. Lower East Side Housing Dev. (N.Y. Supr. 1996)
d. ITT Rayonier, Inc. v. Bell (Wash. 1989) (S23-26)
B. Elements & Related Issues
1. Actual Use
2. Open & Notorious
3. Exclusive
4. Continuous
5. Adverse/Hostile, Claim of Right & State of Mind
6. Other Issues: Note 7 (S32)
C. Boundary Disputes
1. Special Issues: Note 8 (S32)
2. Dorschner, Nightmare on 68th Street (1992) (S33-42)
D. Policy Implications: Squatting & Environment
E. Written Assignment #2: Stealing Home
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CHAPTER 3: Tort-Like Limits on the Right to Use: Nuisance & Related Doctrines
A. Introduction to Resolving Competing Land Uses
1. Pollution, Industry, and Urban Living: McCarty v. Natural Carbolic Gas Co. (N.Y. 1907)
2. Ranchers, Farmers & the Coase Theorem: Maguire v. Yanke (Idaho 1978)
B. Private Nuisance
1. Possible Rules for Resolving Private Nuisance Disputes
a. Chart: Four Approaches to Private Nuisance (S60)
b. Carpenter v. Double R Cattle Co. I (Idaho App. 1983) (S61-72)
c. Carpenter v. Double R Cattle Co. II (Idaho 1985) (S72-73)
2. The Limits of Private Nuisance Law (Preclusion)
C. Public Nuisance
1. Overview of Public Nuisance Law (P145-51)
2. Spur Industries v. Del E. Webb Development Co. (Ariz. 1972) (P158-64)
3. Armory Park Neighborhood Ass’n v. Episcopal Community Servs. (Ariz. 1985) (S75-81)
Unit II: Such a Deal! : Voluntary Transfers of Property Rights
CHAPTER 4: Where There’s a Will … and Where There Isn’t: Property Transfer at Death
A. Intestate Succession
a. Overview of Intestate Succession (S85-86)
b. Florida Intestacy Statutes (S86-88)
c. Written Assignment III: Intestacy and the Variety of State Law
B. Wills
1. Overview of Selected Issues (S88-92)
2. Selected Florida Laws Relating to Wills (S92-95)
3. Sample Will Formalities Cases
a. Estate of Weiss (Penn. 1971) (S96-97)
b. Estate of Stasis (Penn. 1973) (S97-100)
4. Testator’s State of Mind
a. In re Strittmater’s Estate (N.J. Eq. 1947) (S100-01)
b. Estate of Webb (Okla. 1993) (S101-06)
CHAPTER 5: Nobody’s Perfect: Physical and Title Defects in Purchased Property
A. . Duty to Disclose Physical Defects and Off-Site Problems
1. Stambovsky v. Ackley (N.Y.App.Div. 1991) (S112-16)
2. Strawn v. Canuso (N.J. 1995) (P404-12)
B. Introduction to the Recording System
1. S.Kurtz & H.Hovenkamp, Information Costs and the Market for Real
Property (1987) (S120-21)
2. Title Records and Indexing
a. The Title Search and the Abstract of Title (1987) (S122-26)
b. The Indices (P469-72)
3. Recording Acts & Their Operation
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Unit III: Mi Casa es Su Casa: Divided Rights in the Same Piece of Land
CHAPTER 6: Leased But Not Last: Selected Problems in Landlord-Tenant Law
A. Introduction: Some Themes in Landlord-Tenant Law (S161)
B. Habitability & Related Issues: Working with the Florida Statutes
1. Florida Residential Landlord-Tenant Statutes (S162-73)
2. Miami-Dade County Housing Code (S173-82)
3. Written Assignment #4: Tempest at the Teapot (S183-86)
C. Tenant Selection
1. The Right to Transfer
a. Note: The Right to Assign and Sublet (P700-701)
b. Funk v. Funk (Idaho 1981) (P701-05)
2. Proving Violations of Anti-Discrimination Statutes
a. Statutes: 42 U.S.C. §3604(a)& Civil Rights Act of 1866
b. Sorenson v. Raymond (5th Cir. 1976) (S188-91)
c. Marable v. H.Walker & Assoc. (5th Cir. 1981) (S191-96)
D. Alterations of the Premises by the Tenant
1. The Doctrine of Waste: Moore v. Phillips (Kan. App. 1981) (P635-38)
2. Reasonable Modifications under the FHA
a. 42 U.S.C. §3604(f)(3)(A) (S5) (review)
b. 24 CFR §100.203 (S200-01)
c. U.S. v. Freer (W.D.N.Y. 1994) (S201-03)
CHAPTER 8: Dividing Rights by Contract: The Law of Servitudes
A. Easements
1. Express Easements
a. Positive Easements
i) Chevy Chase Land Co. v. U.S. (Md. App. 1999) (P826-32)
ii) Marcus Cable Assoc. v. Krohn (Tex. 2002) (P834-38)
b . Negative Easements: Petersen v. Friedman (Cal. App. 1958) (S231-32)
2. Implied Easements
a. Easements by Estoppel: Stoner v. Zucker (Cal. 1906) (P847-49)
b. Easements by Implication & by Necessity
i) Williams Island Country Club v. San Simeon (Fla. App. 1984) (P852-54)
ii) Dupont v. Whiteside (Fla. App. 1998) (P855-59)
B. Promissory Servitudes: Common Interest Communities
1. Protecting Landowners (P916)
2. Nahrstedt v. Lake Village Condominium Assn. (Cal.1994) (P916-922)
3. Nahrstedt (Arabian, J. dissenting) (less edited version) (S238-42)
4. Selected Florida Statutes Regarding Condominiums (S242-43)
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