Law Commons^™

The Power To Exclude And The Power To Expel, Donald J. Smythe

Cleveland State Law Review

Property laws have far-reaching implications for the way people live and for the opportunities they and their children will have. They also have important consequences for property developers and businesses, both large and small. It is not surprising, therefore, that modern developments in property law have been so strongly influenced by political pressures. Unfortunately, those with the most economic resources and political power have had the most telling influences on the development of property laws in the United States during the twentieth century. This Article introduces a simple game—the "Not-In-My-Backyard Game"—to illustrate the motivations of various parties with interests in …

Children Of Men: Balancing The Inheritance Rights Of Marital And Non-Marital Children, Browne C. Lewis

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Average U.S. citizens are routinely having children out of wedlock. In America, at least one out of every three babies born is a non-marital child. As more and more children continue to be born out of wedlock, society must enact laws to protect the interests of those children. They are the children of men and they are entitled to financial support both during the lives and after the deaths of their parents.

Part II of this article briefly discusses the historical treatment of non-marital children. Part Ill explores the modem legal treatment of non-marital children, which consists of three distinct …

Harmful Use And The Takings Clause In The Eye Of The Beholder: Lucas V. South Carolina Coastal Council, Charles H. Clarke

Cleveland State Law Review

Whichever of these two possibilities prevails, both possibilities require the courts to perform essentially legislative functions regardless, in other words, of whether public ecological resources receive insufficient or ample protection from private enterprise that wants to consume them. The traditional Takings Clause precedents, on the other hand, would give public ecological resources and private property ample protection with minimum judicial oversight. The traditional position seems preferable for this reason.

How To Do A Perpetuities Problem, John Makdisi

Cleveland State Law Review

The most difficult aspect of the rule against perpetuities is figuring out a sure-fire way to determine whether an interest created in a conveyance is valid or invalid. The meaning of the rule itself is not hard to fathom. Whenever the interest might vest too remotely it is invalid, and it becomes possible to vest remotely if there is a chance that it could vest more than twenty-one years after everyone alive at the time of the conveyance has died. Whether the interest violates the rule against perpetuities is determined at the moment the conveyance creating the interest becomes effective. …

Trafficante V. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. - White Ghetto Tenants - Standing To Protest Landlord's Rental Discrimination, Rosalee Chiara

Cleveland State Law Review

The Supreme Court in Trafficante v. Metropolitan life Insurance Co. has held that tenants having standing under Tile VIII of the 1968 Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. §3610(a), §3610(d) and 42 U.S.C. §19824 to sue their landlord for its alleged discriminatory rental practices.5 Plaintiffs, one black and one white, were tenants of an apartment complex in San Francisco whose tenant population of approximately 8,200 people was less than one percent black. The complaint alleged a variety of discriminatory rental practices directed toward non-white rental applicants and stated that plaintiffs had been injured in three respects. They claimed that they had …

Visitors' Refusal To Leave Premises, Joseph Gibson

Cleveland State Law Review

Many factors have been blamed for this new, brazen attitude of remaining on another's property. Some fault the Supreme Court's rulings in Brown v. Louisiana, where court conviction of sit-in demonstrators at a public library, was reversed by holding that the conviction was a violation of the fourteenth amendment rights, and Cox v. Louisiana' where the Court decided that a state statute which regulated picketing was improper because of the discretion which it gave to local officials. Others lay the blame on a more permissive society which is breeding contempt for the power structure. The most logical explanation is a …

Damages For Loss Of Trees, Evelyn Stebbins, Charles G. Sabo

Cleveland State Law Review

The purpose of damages is to compensate an individual for an injury or wrong, where the loss or diminution is proximately caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of another. The purpose of a measure of damages is to ascertain what compensation to award the injured person. The courts have held that the general measure for damage to real property is the difference between the market value of the property before the injury and its value after the injury. Although there is no fixed, arbitrable, or absolute rule regarding damages for the loss of trees to realty, the …

Implied Warranty Of Habitability In Leases, Ira O. Kane

Cleveland State Law Review

This paper will discuss (and take issue with) the position of a significant number of American courts which have held that there is no warranty of habitability implied in a lease. It will demonstrate the failure of many courts in this country to improve the common law rule, which has proven unrealistic in light of current legislative housing standards and building codes.

Duty To Light Exterior Of Premises, Ralph J. Rosenthal

Cleveland State Law Review

This paper will discuss the impact of lighting upon crime and crime prevention; and propose that there be recognized a general common law duty upon landowners to exercise reasonable care to maintain the means of ingress and egress to their property, over which they retain control, adequately lighted; and be liable for personal injuries due to inadequate lighting. For the purposes of this paper, distinctions among the various classes of entrants upon land, i.e., trespassers, licensees, invitees, etc., will not be considered as material. In part it is beyond the scope of this paper, and in part it is due …