Also known as: laws of property · property law
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The category of law dealing with proprietary rights in rem such as personal servitudes, predial servitudes, and rights of real security. It forms one of the three traditional departments of civil law alongside persons and obligations.
Lucas Lee orally promised Leah Lamb $500 if she induced a third party to transfer Blackacre. When the buyer later refused to pay, the court held the promise outside the statute of frauds because it did not create an interest in land under property law. The commission agreement therefore remained enforceable despite the absence of a writing.
Lotus Pharmaceuticals installed specialized manufacturing equipment bolted to the floor of its leased plant. When the landlord later claimed the equipment as part of the realty, the court applied the fixture test and ruled that an interest in the goods had arisen under real property law. The equipment therefore lost its character as ordinary personal property.
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Liam Larson purchased two beachfront lots intending to build single-family homes. A new state statute barred all construction, leaving the parcels economically valueless. The Court held the regulation a per se taking because it eliminated all productive use without reference to background nuisance principles existing at acquisition.
Levi Lowe, trustee of a common trust fund, published notice of an accounting proceeding only in local newspapers. Nonresident beneficiaries later challenged the decree for lack of personal jurisdiction. The Court required notice reasonably calculated to inform known parties of their property interests in the fund.
Leonard Lowe rode as a passenger in a car owned by another. Police searched the vehicle and found evidence used against him. The Court held that Lowe lacked a legitimate expectation of privacy in the car because he asserted no property or possessory interest recognized under property law.
Lucia Lopez rented an apartment from Legacy Motors' residential subsidiary. The unit contained serious code violations that rendered it uninhabitable. The court implied a warranty of habitability into the lease, treating the tenant's possessory interest as protected by property-law standards of fitness.
The law of property governs rights in rem that run with the thing itself. The law of obligations governs rights in personam that bind only particular parties. This division structures the traditional civil-law categories of persons, property, and obligations.
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An interest counts as land when it constitutes a right, privilege, power, or immunity recognized under property law and is not goods under the UCC. Oral promises creating such interests therefore fall within the statute.
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Goods become fixtures when they are so related to particular real property that an interest in them arises under real property law. Once that relation occurs, real-property encumbrance rules may apply even though the goods originated as personalty.
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A regulation that deprives land of all economically beneficial use constitutes a per se taking requiring just compensation unless background nuisance or property principles already prohibited the use at acquisition.
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…has instead relied on the principle that some property interests are necessarily limited by background principles of the State's law of property and nuisance. Regulations that do no more than duplicate the result that could have been achieved under those principles do not deprive the owner of any "property" interest. Pp.…