Acquisition of property
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
11:28 PM
Theory of Property Acquisition:
· Occupancy Theory:
· You acquire property in the wild through occupancy.
· First-in-Time Rule:fundamental rule of ownership – first person to take possession of a Faerae Naturae owns it (rule of capture).( Pierson v. Post: one man chases the fox into the other land, the other hunts the fox. The one to shoot it is the one to get it. Majority opinion: Mere puruit does not constitute occupancy. One needs to actually capture the animal or wound it so it is deprive of its liberty and cannot return to the wild on its own-animal needs to be immobilized. Dissent: Need to show intent to the public to have ownership. Pierson should have known not to snatch the fox, as Post was chasing it and was clearly about to capture it. The dissent would agree with the majority if it was not obvious to the reasonable person that Pierson had the intent to catch the fox and was about to do so.)
· Previous occupier has right over subsequent occupier. But subsequent occupier has right over everyone else.
· When do one’s activities suffice to create occupancy?
· Actual possession vs. constructive possession
· Constructive possession can be either mortally wounding or greatly maiming the animal; or destroying the animal’s natural liberty
· The thing is under your control
· Made an effort at obtaining the item
· Communicative element, ie, manifested a clear intent to appropriate it exclusively so others won’t take it.
· Roman law: Roman Law (Justinian)
· As soon as you catch an animal, it is yours.
· When the animal leaves your control, it is no longer yours. Belongs to next person who catches it.
· Does not address Pierson v. Post, where second captor thwarted first captor.
o Natural Law:
· One person may not take from another what he has lawfully marked out for his own use. So in Pierson v. Post, the second captor could not take the fox from the first captor, who, by tracking the fox, marked it out for his own use.
· If a hunter kills a beast, and another picks him up, the beast is the property of the hunter that killed it, not the other that picked it up.
o Capture of wild animals: If wild animals (ferae naturae) are captured, they belong to the captor, Pierson v. Post
· Ratione a soli – the animal is on someone’s property
· Interference by noncompetitor: If a person is in the process of entrapping animals, a competitor who also wants to capture the animal
Pierson could have won if he had argued interference, and cited Keeble.
o Blackstone
· Need to divide animals between individuals. Some for public hunting, some belong to individual.
· Some thing, e.g. light, air, etc. have to belong to all people.
· Solid, physical things may be divided among people.
o Maine, Ancient Law
· Some property is acquired naturally, e.g. wild animal killed by hunter, soil added to someone’s land by a river, tree growing in someone’s land, etc.
· Occupancy is the acquisition of property for oneself which previously belonged to no one, e.g. hunter claiming animal he killed, miner claiming gold he found and extracted, claimant of abandoned goods, etc.
· Occupant is one who acquires a property for the first time.
· Occupancy is the process by which “no man’s goods” become someone’s private property for the first time.
o Wild animals:
Most jurisdictions follow Pierson.
