Possessor's Rights and interests Flashcards
What are air rights?
Owner entitled to freedom from excessive noise do to air traffic. Plan flies too low, potential trespass.
What is lateral support?
Landowner’s right to have land supported in its natural state by owners of adjacent property. General rule is that adjacent land owners may not take any action that will jeopardize the stability of neighboring lands.
What is liability for violating lateral support rights?
Strict liability. If a neighbor does take an action that jeopardizes the stability of a neighboring land, the person taking such action will be strictly liable for any resulting damage. This means that the liability will attach even if there was no negligence involved in the action that caused the damage.
What happens if the neighbor’s actions damages structure, not land?
Still liable, but on theory of negligence. Not SL (in most jurisdictions).
What is subjacent support
Landowner’s right to have her land supported in its natural state by owners of mineral or other interests under the surface of her land. Comes up when the owner of the surface is different from owner of subterranean land (like a cave)
What are riparian rights?
The Riparian doctrine, which is most popular in the eastern part of the United States, provides that the rights to water belongs equally to all the owners of lands that border the water source. The owner of property that adjoins the water is called a “riparian” owner. Therefore, none of the land owners may take action with regard to the water source that will deprive the other “riparian owners” of the use of the water.
What are ground water rights?
Ground water is water that is withdrawn from the ground. The most common type of ground water is well water that is pumped from the water table beneath the ground. Note that if there is a flowing underground stream, this would be considered a watercourse and not ground water.
Just as with watercourse water, there is a split among jurisdictions, mostly based on geographical lines, as to how to deal with the ownership of, and rights to, ground water. The majority rule is to allow each property owner “reasonable use” of the ground water beneath his or her property. Essentially, this means that the owner can use the property to whatever extent is reasonably necessary for the use and enjoyment of that property.
Some eastern states allow people to make any use of the water beneath his or her property, even if the usage far exceeds the needs of that property. Again, these jurisdictions are the jurisdictions in which water is plentiful and there is therefore no need to restrict water use. For example:
What are surface water rights?
Surface waters include standing rain water, melted snow, etc. The rule regarding usage of standing water is simple and intuitive. The owner of property on which the standing water sits has complete and exclusive rights to use it.
Problems arise when, as is often the case, standing water is harmful to land because it floods crops or otherwise interferes with the owner’s use and enjoyment of the land. The question is, to what extent, if at all, each property owner should be allowed to divert the harmful water, through the use of dams or dikes etc., off of his or her own property and onto the property of another person. Once again, jurisdictions are split in terms of how to handle this problem. Below is a sampling of some of the applicable rules that are applied by various jurisdictions:
1) Natural Flow Rule: Under this rule, land owners may not take steps to divert harmful waters onto other lands at all. Instead, it is the responsibility of each land owner to deal with the water that naturally enters his or her land to the best of his or her ability.
2) Common Enemy Rule: This doctrine, at the other extreme from the natural flow rule, is based on the theory that the harmful water is the “common enemy” of everyone. Therefore, anyone may take any steps he or she desires to keep the harmful water off their property, even if that means diverting the water onto someone else’ s property.
3) Reasonable Use Rule: This rule is a compromise between the above two doctrines. According to this rule, harmful water may be diverted where such a diversion is reasonable, in light of the surrounding circumstances, including gravity of the harm that will be caused by the water and ease with which that harm can be avoided.
