Lectures

Question 1

Joly v Pelletier

Answer 1

C claimed to be martian, thus he is not a legal person and has no standing

Question 2

Caratun v Caratun

Answer 2

licence to practice dentistry; not a subject of property, not assignable

Question 3

Janicki v Hospital of St Raphael

Answer 3

Stiilborn foetus dissection; quasi-property

Question 4

Doodeward

Answer 4

If dead body was subject to work and skill and has different attributes, can be property

Question 5

Yearworth

Answer 5

Sperm = property

Question 6

Davis v Australia

Answer 6

protection for confidential info in equity; Commonwealth overstepped its bounds by prohibiting ’88 to appear in pieces not celebrating bicentennial anniversary of Australia; information ought to be freely available

Question 7

Seaboard Life v Babich

Answer 7

You must interfere with someone’s rights if he is to recover

Question 8

International News Service v Associated Press

Answer 8

Copy rights to news? quasi-property as between competing newspapers

Question 9

Victoria Park Racing v Taylor [AU]

Answer 9

you can’t have property in a spectacle

Question 10

Breen v Williams

Answer 10

no proprietorship in information as information, because once imparted by one person to another, it belongs equally to them both; test: against who it can be enforced?

Question 11

Possession

Answer 11

Control (factual possession) + intention to posses

Question 12

Young v Hitchens [1844]

Answer 12

D rowed inside P’s net and caught fish; D is sued; C loses.
C claims he had possession of fish but for D; C would have acquired possession but C did not catch the fish; D not liable in tort of interference.

Question 13

State of Ohio v Shaw [1902]

Answer 13

D charged with theft of fish from unattended nets in Lake Eerie; C had possession of nets even though nets were unattended.

Held: despite the fact that fish were escapable, C had sufficient control of fish to amount to possession.

Question 14

JA Pye (Oxford) Ltd v Graham HL

Answer 14

Owner refused to renew grazing licence to G; G continued to use land to graze and cut hay; G willing to pay for new grazing licence if asked; G claimed right to be registered as owner of land based on 12 years of adverse possession.

Question 15

Flack v National Crime Authority

Answer 15

Police searched Flack’s home, found $433,000 in cash in a closet, and seized it; she did not know the cash was
She had possession, Money was in a closet in her private home; she had a key to that closet – she decided who to admit, she controlled that space and things within that space.

Question 16

Armory v Delamirie

Answer 16

Chimney sweeper’s boy (Claimant) finds jewel; Delivers it to goldsmith’s apprentice (D) for appraisal; Apprentice removes gem stones; D guilty of trover, C had better (earlier) title

Question 17

Costello v Derbyshire Constabulary

Answer 17

“the fact of possession of a chattel of itself gives to the possessor a possessory title and the possessor is entitled to rely on such title without reference to the circumstances in which such possession was obtained”

Question 18

Waverley Borough Council v Fletcher

Answer 18

Why did the owner of a public park have a better right to the brooch?
Park open to the public; not free to dig in the ground; if he had found brooch on the ground, Fletcher would have won (Parker v British Airways).

Question 19

Nemo Dat

Answer 19

no one can give what he or she does not have; exception: money used as currency (in notes)

Question 20

Registered Land

Answer 20

– registered under Land Registration Act 2002
What you’re registering is in the registrar – registering a lease, easement etc.
– unregistered interests
• e.g. short lease; leases perfectly valid legally (but are unregistered interests)
• e.g. equitable interest under a trust

Question 21

Unregistered Land

Answer 21

Someone may have a lease but land is not in the registrar.
– not registered under Land Registration Act 2002
– Land Charges Act 1972
• register of certain interests in unregistered land
• e.g. estate contract
• e.g. restrictive covenant

Question 22

Tenure

Answer 22

The (form of) right or title by which, or conditions under which, land or buildings are held

Question 23

Estate

Answer 23

The interest that a person has in land or other property

Question 24

Tenure today

Answer 24

• Tenure means that formally:

o The Crown owns the land
o Private owner are tenants of the Crown

Question 25

Morris

Answer 25

land and chattels; fixture does become part of the land once it is fixed.

Question 26

Types of Leases

Answer 26

• Fixed term
• Periodic
• Tenancies at will
• Lease by estoppel

Question 27

Leek and Moorlands Building Society v Clark

Answer 27

Periodic tenancies are tenancies that are granted on a yearly, monthly, weekly or indeed any other periodic basis; they continue from period to period indefinitely until determined by notice to quit; usually occur when no written agreement

Question 28

Tenancy at will

Answer 28

exists where the tenancy is on terms that either party may determine it at any time; can be terminated simply by asking the tenant to leave, or by serving possession proceedings and no special form of notice is required

Question 29

Lease by estoppel

Answer 29

Where a person has been granted a tenancy both he and the landlord are estopped from denying its existence. The landlord cannot derogate from the tenant’s grant and the tenant cannot dispute the landlord’s title, even though the landlord has no interest in the land