Property Law Vocabulary and Concepts

Vocabulary and legal concept flashcards generated from Property I lecture notes covering theories of property, rule of capture, trespass, finders, gifts, adverse possession, and present freehold estates.

Legal Positivism

The principle that rights, including property rights, arise only through government.

Bundle of Rights

The collection of legal rights associated with property ownership, including the right to exclude, transfer, possess and use, and destroy (none of which are absolute).

Labor Theory

A property theory asserting that people are entitled to property produced by their labor because mixing labor with natural resources confers property rights.

Pierson v. Post Rule

Rule establishing that mere pursuit of a wild animal does not vest property rights in the pursuer.

State v. Shaw

Rule holding that stealing fish safely secured and confined can be larceny, even if it was not absolutely impossible for the fish to escape.

Pre-possessory Interest

An interest recognized when a person completes a significant portion of the steps to achieve possession of an item but is thwarted due to the unlawful conduct of another (Popov v. Hayashi).

Conversion

The intentional exercise of dominion over personal property that seriously interferes with another's right to control it.

Private Nuisance

A nontrespassory invasion of another's land that results in an unreasonable, substantial interference in that person's use and enjoyment of their property.

Abandoned Property

Property whose owner intends to relinquish all right, title, and interest without transferring title to a particular person, and manifests this intent through action.

Lost Property

Property unintentionally and involuntarily parted with by the owner through neglect or inadvertence, where the owner does not know where it is.

Mislaid Property

Property that the owner voluntarily places in a particular location with the intent to retain ownership, but then forgets or fails to reclaim.

Bailment

The rightful possession of goods by one who is not the owner.

Respondeat Superior

A legal doctrine holding an employer responsible for the wrongful or negligent acts of an employee committed while acting within the scope of their employment.

Trover

A common law legal action that lets an owner recover the financial value of personal property that someone else wrongfully took or used.

Replevin

A legal action that allows a rightful owner to recover physical possession of personal property unlawfully taken or withheld by another.

Hannah v. Peel Rule

The finder of lost chattel on another's property has rights to that chattel superior to the rights of the property owner.

Gift Inter Vivos

An ordinary, irrevocable gift made by one living person to another, requiring intent, delivery, and acceptance.

Gift Causa Mortis

A present gift made between living persons in anticipation of the donor's immediate death, which is revoked if the donor survives the anticipated peril.

Adverse Possession Requirements

A doctrine enabling a non-owner to gain title to land or personal property after proving possession was open and notorious, continuous, exclusive, actual, non-permissive/hostile, and maintained for the statutory period.

Discovery Rule

A rule that tolls the statute of limitations for adverse possession of personal property until the owner discovers where the chattel is located, provided the owner acted with due diligence.

Freehold Estates

Category of real property interests entitling the holder to current use and possession, divided into Fee Simple, Life Estate (or LE pur autre vie), and Fee Tail.

Fee Tail

A common law interest in land, now abolished in most states, where the owner is required to pass the land on to their direct descendants.

Fee Simple Determinable (FSD)

A defeasible fee simple estate created using words of duration (e.g., 'so long as', 'while', 'during', 'until') that automatically reverts to the grantor immediately upon a breach of condition.

Fee Simple Subject to Condition Subsequent (FSSCS)

A defeasible fee simple estate created using words of condition (e.g., 'provided that', 'but if', 'on the condition that') where the grantor retains a right of entry requiring affirmative action to terminate the estate.