Also known as: owners · owner's · owners' · proprietor · possessor
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
One who has the right to possess, use, and convey something. A person in whom one or more interests are vested may hold complete property or may have parted with some interests such as by granting an easement or making a lease.
Orion Orlov owned an apartment building and leased units to several families. He entered one unit at night by reaching through a window to steal valuables from a tenant's bedroom. The structure counted as a dwelling of another because the tenants occupied it for sleeping, so Orion faced burglary liability despite his ownership.
Onyx O'Reilly contracted to buy a warehouse from Odyssey Logistics. Before closing a fire destroyed the building. Equity treated Onyx as owner from contract formation, so Onyx bore the risk and remained obligated to pay the full purchase price.
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Opal Okoro walked onto a parcel that Oceanview Properties possessed under a recorded deed. Opal's presence triggered trespass liability to the possessor even though the entry caused no physical damage to the land.
Oriana Oberman granted a recorded right of way across her land so that Odilia Okamura could reach a public road. The easement gave Odilia a nonpossessory right to use the strip while Oriana retained possession and could not block the authorized access.
Olympus Banking took a security interest in a fleet of delivery trucks owned by Oswald Orozco. The trucks qualified as goods because they were movable when the interest attached, allowing the bank to perfect its rights against the owner.
Optima Health and two physicians associated to operate a clinic for profit. Their co-ownership of the business assets and profit-sharing arrangement created a partnership under the statute.
No. Title can pass by operation of law through mechanisms such as tax foreclosure or intestate succession without any deed from the former owner.
The owner may lose the right through abandonment, statutory discontinuance, or amortization ordinances that require termination after a reasonable period.
Only if the restraint is reasonable. Courts weigh its utility against the injurious effect on marketability. An open-ended veto or perpetual buyer-specific limit is typically unreasonable and unenforceable.
In most jurisdictions the buyer is treated as owner from contract formation, so the risk of destruction passes to the buyer even though legal title remains with the seller.
…was located was considered to have exclusive sovereignty over that property, in rem actions could proceed regardless of the owner's location. Indeed, since a State's process could not reach beyond its borders, this Court held after Pennoyer that due process did not require any effort to give a property owner personal…