Chapter 1: Brief History of Real Property in the U.S.
A. Johnson v. Graham’s Lessee
a. Initial Land Allocation will always be arbitrary.
B. Land Allocation/Protection in U.S.
a. Yosemite Valley
i. A settler who complies with pre requisites is not entitled to the land, but is a preferred purchaser should the gov’t. decide to sell the land.
C. Limits to Privatization
a. Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. Illinois (corrupt legislature sells publicly held land to railroad. Later, Illinois legislature passes new law taking land back. Is the Chicago harbor public trust – so that a legislature can’t give it away to begin with? Yes.)
i. Land held in public trust is for everyone to enjoy.
ii. State can’t give up ownership of an entire habor, but can grant parcels of land to be used in the furtherance of the public interest.
Chapter 2: Some Basic Rights and Responsibilities of the Landowner
The Right to Exclude – according to Blackstone, “the cornerstone of private property is the right to exclude anyone and anything from your property that you don’t want on your property.” Though not absolute.
1. Trespass – Right to Exclude
Jacque v. Steenberg Homes (D’s needed to deliver a mobile home to a third party. Roads were snowy and impassable. D drove over P’s lot to deliver home. P sued for intentional trespass). Court awarded Jacque’s nominal damages and punitive damages
· Nomina
was intentional, plaintiffs will always get relief
· If encroachment is significant, injunction will be granted, irrespective of whether the encroachment was intentional.
· Potential exception could be where the encroachment was made innocently and it would be disproportionate to the injury to the plaintiff if compelled to remove encroachment.
Somerville v. Jacobs (P’s mistakenly erected warehouse on lot owned by d’s. D’s claim ownership. Plaintiff files suit for equitable relief)
If an individual, through reasonable mistake of fact, erects a building on land belonging to another is entitled to recover value of improvements OR to buy the land for it’s initial price – pre structure.
