Also known as: res immobilis · immovables · immovable property
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Immovable property consisting of land and things so attached to land as to be regarded as part of it under applicable law. The classification distinguishes such property from movable items whose location can be changed.
Dana, a director at GreenEarth Conservancy, secretly executed a deed conveying a preserved wetland parcel owned by Rivershed Mitigation Trust to a development company in which she held a hidden interest. The transfer occurred without authority and for her personal benefit. Under the governing theft statute the act constituted an unlawful disposition of immovable property.
River Ocean purchased coastal property in State B under a contract designating State A law. Jeremy later claimed a prescriptive easement based on decades of use entirely within State B. The court evaluated contacts to determine which state's rules governed interests in the immovable.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
After a land sale closed, the buyer and seller disputed whether a prior use created an easement. Both parties had consulted counsel and formed expectations in State A, yet the land lay in State B. The court weighed the need to protect justified expectations against the situs state's interest in its own property rules.
A State A court faced a dispute over title to land located in State B. The court applied the totality of State B law, including its choice-of-law rules, to reach the same result a State B court would reach on the actual facts.
After a Louisiana decedent's death, heirs litigated rights to land situated in the state. The court applied Louisiana rules classifying the property as an immovable and determining succession accordingly.
A husband unilaterally mortgaged jointly owned Louisiana land. The wife challenged the transaction, and the court examined state rules governing interests in immovables within the community property regime.
Yes. Statutes modeled on Model Penal Code section 223.2(2) make it theft to unlawfully transfer immovable property of another or any interest therein with purpose to benefit oneself or another not entitled to the benefit. Leasehold interests qualify as interests in immovable property.
For immovables the reference is to the law of the state where the land is located, including that state's choice-of-law rules, so that a forum court reaches the same result a court of the situs would reach.
When two or more states have identical local law rules on the issue, contacts located in those states are treated as if grouped in a single state for choice-of-law purposes.
…religious and charitable purposes; "(b) to manage its own affairs in matters of religion; "(c) to own and acquire movable and immovable property; and "(d) to administer such property in accordance with law." See 1 Chaudhri, Constitutional Rights and Limitations (1955), 875. This Article does not, however, appear to have completely…