Bundle of Sticks Flashcards
Right to Transfer (aka alienability)
The right of an owner to convey their property.
Restraints on Alienation
Provisions in a deed or will that limit future transfers.
Restraints on Alienation - Disabling Restraint
Completely prevents the transferee from transferring their interest. White v. Brown
Restraints on Alienation - Forfeiture Restraint
A forfeiture of title if the transferee attempts to transfer their interest.
Restraints on Alienation - Promissory Restraint
A stipulation that the transferee promises not to transfer.
Right to Exclude
The right of an owner to keep others off their property as enforced through the doctrine of trespass.
Trespass
The intentional (general intent) and unprivileged entry onto another’s land.
Privileges
Consent or necessity are defenses to trespass.
Right to Exclude - Limitation
In some jurisdictions, punitive damages can be awarded even without compensator damages. Jacque v. Steenberg Homes (allowing punitive damages when D drove across P’s land even when it was the only feasible route, because they crossed over P’s objection)
Right to Exclude - Limitation
Owners are not entitled to exclude aid to persons housed on their property State v. Schack (finding O had no right to keep a public lawyer from consulting with a migrant worker in private, just because the worker lived on O’s land “property rights serve human values)
Right to Exclude Limitation - Right to Roam
A rule allowing public access to private land classified as “open country.”
Adopted in Britain
Right to Exclude Limitation - Implied License
Land owners implicitly consent to public use unless the owner posts “no trespassing” signage.
Right to Use
The right of an owner to use their property as they please.
Right to Use Limitation - Spite Fence Doctrine
an owner cannot erect an unusually high fence along her property line for the sole purpose of annoying her neighbor. Sundower v. King
Right to Use Limitation - Private Nuisance
the intentional, nontrespassory, unreasonable, substantial interference with the use and enjoyment of another’s land. Prah v. Maretti (finding shade over a solar panel could theoretically be an nuisance, but remanding to determine if D’s tall house casting shade on P’s solar panels actually was, NOTE possible application of Prior Appropriation Doctrine)
Right to Use Limitation - The Coase Theorem
assumes that, absent transaction costs and assuming all rational actors, parties will reach an efficient allocation of recourses through bargaining.
Right to Destroy
The right of the owner to destroy their property.
Right to Destroy Limitation - Public Policy
Eyerman v. Mercantile Trust Co. (finding decedent had no right to will destruction of her home because it had historic value to the neighborhood)
Majority: “a well-ordered society cannot tolerate the waste and destruction of resources when such acts directly affect important interests of other members of that society”
Dissent: only limitation on owners right to destroy is that it may not “substantially impair another’s right to peaceably enjoy his property.”
Right to Destroy Limitation - Public Policy
Presidential Records Act of 1978: Presidents may not destroy their papers after their term (see also Nixon’s takings claim).
