PROPERTY – Spring 2007
4 General Principles of Property Law (COHEN)
A. Judicial Efficiency
1) minimize time, cost of litigation
2) save judicial resources
B. Economic Productivity
1) decisions should encourage economic expansion, not hurt the market
C. Certainty
1) interest in “bright-line” rules where the outcome can be predicted
D. Fairness
1) ambiguous principle- just what is “fair” ?
I. Competing Claims to Acquisition and Allocation of Prop Rights
1. Wild Animals (ferae naturae) Pierson v. Post:
A. Capture: wild animal captured- belongs to the captor. Capture required, merely chasing the animal is not enough. (Rationale: foster competition and ease of administration)
1) possession to the first person to exercise “dominion and control”
2) custom in some trades, if recognized by courts may dictate a
different result
3) if a captured wild animal that has no habit of return escapes then it can be captured by another. If the animal is not native to the area, person is put on notice that the animal has escaped and has prior possessor.
B. Wounded or trapped animals: mere pursuit is NOT possession, but if animal has been mortally wounded so that capture is virtually certain, animal treated as captured.
2) Constructive possession- Setting a Trap/ Net: if the animal is only in the process of being entrapped and trap has not slammed shut, it has not yet been captured.
-law wants to promote fair competition
-cage is not escape proof, but captor acquires possession if he uses reasonable precautions against escape.
3) any possessory rights are forfeited if the person is a trespasser or is in violation of a statute
4) “Ratione Sole”- the property owner has a superior claim over items on the land
2. Rights to Oil and Gas- rule of capture has been applied by courts to oil and gas. (Rationale: gives an incentive for production of oil and gas. Landowner can extract/capture all oil and gas from well under owners land even though the oil and gas may be draining from neighboring land.
A. Nonnegligent capture required:
Elliff v. Texon Drilling- rule of capture doesn’t protect owner who negl drills well which blows out, catches fire and consumes huge quantities of gas from underground neighboring prop.
-Negl driller must pay damages for injuring the common reservoir and thus is penalized for negligently destroying common resources. If not negl he can withdraw all the oil from common pool and make it his own.
B. Limits on capture of oil and gas:
most states with oil and gas deposits have passed statutes regulating # of acres required for a well and require apportionment of the drilling profits among the surface owners within the acreage unit
-“pooling” prevents landowners from racing to put in wells to capture oil and gas from their neighbors.
3. Finders-
1) General Rule:
A finder has rights superior to everyone else but the tru
s found always prevails over the finder. Morgan v Wiser.
ii. “Private” place (like a Home): ratione sole- objects found here are usually awarded to the home owner. Homeowner intends to exclude most and allow others into it for specific limited purposes that don’t include finding prop. Strong expectation of homeowner that all objects in house are ‘his’.
-Exception to ‘Home Exception’: (where finder can keep what he finds in a home) Hannah v Peel:
* When Owner not in possession: If owner has not moved into house yet it has been held that owner is not in constrictive posession of articles therein of which he is unaware.
iii. Master-servant/ in the course of Employment: some cases hold that if the finder is an employee of the owner of the premises, employee cant keep object.
-2 main rationales; employee under K-ual duty to report object to employer / employee acting for the employer in the course of his duties.
iv. Finder on premises for limited purpose: may be said that the owner gave permission for the employee to enter for only that limited purp, and owner of premises entitled to the objects found. (South Staffordshire v Sharman)
v. Buried articles-
