LEGL 2700 Unit 2

Property

Legal right to exclude others from resources that are originally possessed without force, theft, or fraud

What is the foundation of the free market?

Property

What does property establish?

Conditions for capital formation

Real property

Land and interests in land

Personal property

All movable resources

Coastal Oil & Gas Corp. v. Garza Energy Trust et al., 268 S.W.3d 1 (Tex.2008)

In this case, there was collective ownership (several investors) of a 750 acres tract of land, and then they lease the shares so that people can do hydraulic fracturing. For every so much natural gas pumped out, the investors get royalties (in addition to the lease from selling the land). The land nextdoor is getting sold, so Coastal Oil, the company using the land, bought the land next door and drilled there, using the natural gas from the other area for their own fracturing. They are then sued because the investors are no longer getting their royalties. It was argued that the investors should have gotten a better contract lawyer, and that Coastal Oil was not violating any laws.

Briggs v. Southwestern Energy Production Co., 224 A.3d 334 (Pa.2020)

Many people in an area sold their land to do hydraulic fracturing. One person sued based on the fact that their neighbors were taking natural gas from under their land to their own land. The state of PA used the Coastal Oil case in making their decision and ruled that there had been no violations.

Fee Simple

Represents the maximum estate allowed under law

Fee Simple Absolute

Involves no limitations or conditions attached

Fee Simple Defeasible

May have a condition attached to its transfer

Life estate

Grants ownership in land for the lifetime of a specified person

Leasehold estate

Property rights granted to tenants by a landlord

Concurrent Ownership

More than one person can own the same property

Easements

Right to cross over land

Easement by reservation

Easement that allows a property owner to retain particular rights to the property during ownership transfer.

Natural easement

When selling land to another person, such as a house the owner must create some sort of easement (ex. Driveway if there is no way to enter the property from the road).

Negative easement

Restricted covenants in the deed for the property that states that the person buying the property can nogt do anything with it, such as not building a structure more than one story, or blocking a mountain.

Easement by prescription

A property right acquired through the long-term use of someone else's property. An example would be the right to cross through someone else's property through a certain path or a right to a park on someone's property.

Utility easement

The government has the right to easements of private property to install, expand, and maintain utilities such as power lines.

Bailments

goods placed into another's possession to be returned in the future

Bailor

Owner of the subject

Baillee

Possessor of the object. An example would be renting a car.

Contract rules

Control the way owners make agreements to exchange resources in the property-based legal system

Rule of first possession

First person to reduce previously unowned things to possession becomes their owner, ex. An audience member catching a ball during a football game.

Contract rules do what for owners?

Allows owners to commit legally to future exchange of resources

Enable an owner to sue another if agreements in the future are broken by one of the owners

Adverse Possession and its elements

Provides ownership of land under state statute when possession is open and notorious, actual and exclusive, or continuous. All aspects of adverse possession must be met in the statutory period

Lost Items

Things that are lost also can acquire a new owner through possession. The law distinguishes things that have been lost from things that have simply been mislaid.

Mislaid items

Mislaid property is when someone intentionally puts their property down somewhere, and forgot them (ex. Putting airpods on a desk in class and forgetting it), the person that gets it is the premise owner (the building takes it, Terry).

Acquiring resources through confusion

occurs when fungible goods are mixed together so owners take a proportional share of the confused goods if the confusion occurs by honest mistake

Acquiring resources through accession

When people apply efforts to any raw materials and change its nature into finished products, they own the finished products

Accession

something that is added

Acquiring Resources Through Gift

Donor who owns something gives it to a donee who becomes the new owner, the gift does not take place until the donor intends to make the gift or delivers the gift by physical transfer to the donee

Testamentary Gift

Made through a will

Title

Ownership represented by a physical document registered with the state for certain resources

Deed

Document of title that transfers ownership of land

Security Interests

Two principal types are mortgages and secured transactions

Security interests in land include:

Mortgage, deeds of trust, and land sales contract

Recording statutes

Mortgages and deeds of trust must be registered in a recording office

Provide notice of the security interest to potential buyers and lenders of the land

Foreclosure

Creditor must go through the court system to ensure that procedures are properly followed

Deficiency

Balance owned by the debtor to the creditor-mortgagee

Right of redemption

Allows mortgagor, before foreclosure to get back land upon payment of the full amount of the debt

Secured Transactions

Takes place when a secured party has given value, the debtor owns the collateral, and a security agreement is given.

Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code

Set of laws that controls security interests/collateral (like cars)

Attachment occurs when

Secured party holds given value, debtor owns the collateral, or a security agreement is provided

Perfection

Arises when a security interest is attached and creditor has taken all steps required by Article 9

Financing Statement

Filed to perfect a security interest under Article 9

Public Nuisance

Arises from use of land that causes inconvenience or damage to the public

Private nuisance

An unreasonable use of one's property so as to cause substantial interference with teh enjoyment or use of another's land

Zoning ordinances

Generally laws that divide countries or municipalities into use districts designated residential, commercial, or industrial.

Cook v. Sullivan

The trial court ruled that the defendants' construction activities constituted a nuisance that damaged the plaintiff's property, and that the remedy was to remove the fill and foundation form the jurisdictional wetlands. The court adopted the unusual procedure of viewing the property both before and after it took testimony and reviewed the exhibits.

The elements of negligence include:

duty of care, breach of duty, causation in fact, proximate causation, and injury/damages

What are the categories of torts?

Intentional, negligent, strict liability

What are examples of intentional torts?

Assault, battery, infliction of mental distress, invasion of privacy

What is causation in fact

The actual evidence, or facts of the case, that prove a party is at faultg for causing the other person's harm, damages, or losses.

Whose fault is contributory negligence and what doctrine is it?

Plaintiff's fault; doctrine of comparative responsibility

Assumption of risk

Plaintiff's knowing and willing undertaking of an activity

Strict Products Liability:

Seller who sells an unjustly dangerous faulty product that causes injury to a user of the product is strictly liable.

Production defects:

Not created to standards

Design defects:

Injury caused due to unsafe design

Compensatory damages:

Compensate plaintiff for injuries suffered. Includes past and future medical expenses, economic loss, or pain and suffering.

Punitive damages

Awarded by courts to punish defendants. Includes intentional torts or extreme willful or wanton negligence and are awarded for risky negligent conduct.

Contracts are:

Promises that are enforceable with predictable consequences for performance failures.

Contracts enable buyers and sellers to do what? It enables private agreements to be

Account for future risks or have confidence in exchanging valuables; legally enforceable

Contract law provides what and does not have to be what?

flexibility and precision in business dealings; a formal, written document

Contract law comes from either:

Legislation or common law

Contract law made through legislation includes:

Uniform Commercial Code and Contracts for goods

Common law includes:

Judges' decisions and contracts for other than goods

Classification of Contracts includes:

Bilateral and unilateral, express and implied-in-fact, and implied-in-law or quasi-contracts

Contract Enforcement Technology includes:

Enforceable, Unenforceable, valid, void, voidable

Executed Contract:

Parties have performed their promises

Executory Contract:

Parties have not yet performed their agreement

What are the requirements for an Enforceable Contract?

Offer to enter into a contract, acceptance of theh offer, consideration for each promise, capacity of each party to enter into a binding agreement, and legality of subject matter

What are the defenses to contract enforcement?

Improper form when a writing is required, no true meeting of the minds due to fraud or mistake

Mutual mistake:

both parties to a contract have an incorrect belief about an important fact

Unilateral Mistake:

A mistake that occurs when one party to a contract is mistaken as to a material fact.

Duress

compulsion, force

Undue influence

occurs when one party to a contract is in a position of trust and wrongfully dominates the other party

Oral contracts are generally

as enforceable as written agreements

What are some everyday examples of oral contracts?

Buying fast food and vending machines

What is the statute of frauds?

Legal requirement that certain contracts be in writing

is sale of an interest in land required in writing?

Yes

What are some business contracts required in writing?

Sale of goods $500 or more, collateral promise to pay another's debt, contracts that can't be performed in a year, and sale of interest in land

What are the exceptions to the writing requirement?

part performance, rules involving goods, and judicial admission

Whar are the rules of interpretation?

Handwritten, control, types, control, or pre-printed terms/forms

What is the parole evidence rule?

It prohibits testimony about the oral negotiation that results in a written contract and applies to evidence of agreements made at the time or before the written contract

What exception allows evidence of oral agreement that explains the meaning of written terms without changing the terms

Parole Evidence Rule

What is the duty of performance?

Performance required by the other party as promised in the contract

What is the discharged?

Occurs when the party is relieved from all further responsibility of performance

If something must take place in the future, before a party has a duty to perform

Condition Precedent

Excuses contractual performance if some future event takes place

Condition Subsequent

What are express conditions?

Conditions explicitly mentioned in the contract governing peformance

What are implied conditions?

Not explicitly mentioned but can be read into the parties' obligation to perform

Parties have a simultaneous duty of performance with:

Concurrent Condition

Contracting parties must provide:

Specific order of performance in the contract

What is delivery?

Delivery is a legal term referring to transfer of possession from the seller to the buyer.

What is tender performance?

The offer to perform

What are the levels of performance?

Complete, substantial, and material breach

Excuses for Nonperformance:

Force majeure, impossibility of performance/frustration of purpose, commercial impracticability, waiver, release