Property Law and Real Estate Commons^™

Adapting Private Law For Climate Change Adaptation, Jim Rossi, J. B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law Review

The private law of torts, property, and contracts will and should play an important role in resolving disputes regarding how private individuals and entities respond to and manage the harms of climate change that cannot be avoided through mitigation (known in climate change policy dialogue as “adaptation”). While adaptation is commonly presented as a problem needing legislative solutions, this Article presents a novel and overdue case for private law to take climate adaptation seriously.

To date, the role of private law is a significant blind spot in scholarly discussions of climate adaptation. Litigation invoking common-law doctrines in climate adaption disputes …

The Reciprocity Of Search, Tun-Jen Chiang

Vanderbilt Law Review

The discussion of search in patent law always focuses on one particular model of search: producers of commercial products are supposed to identify the patents that their products might infringe and then negotiate a license from the owners of those patents. This one-sided view of search responsibility is most evident in doctrine. As a doctrinal matter, patent law imposes an absolute duty on the producer of a commercial product to find all relevant patents and obtain licenses from each of the owners before commencing manufacture. Failure to meet this duty is punished by liability for infringement, where ignorance of the …

Mining With Mr. Justice Holmes, E. F. Roberts

Vanderbilt Law Review

All of us are probably familiar with the notion that the owner of mineral rights may owe some duty of care to support the owner of the fee in his or her surface use of the land. This principle results in a binary system (the surface estate and the right of sup-port) that can be treated easily in tort law. In Pennsylvania the coal companies had owned vast areas of land. The companies had sold much of this land, reserving not only the coal, but "the right to. ..remove the same without incurring in any way liability for any damage …

Landlord Liability For Crimes Committed By Third Parties Against Tenants On The Premises, Irma W. Merrill

Vanderbilt Law Review

The controversial subject of landlord liability for crimes committed by third parties on the apartment premises has been the subject of much debate. The discussion has produced a scattering of opinions rather than one settled rule. Not all jurisdictions agree that a landlord should be held liable to his tenants for crimes on the premises. Even jurisdictions that do hold landlords liable for such crimes disagree on the basis for liability. Some courts ground their decisions in contract. Other courts conjure landlord liability out of an implied warranty of habitability. Still other courts impose landlord liability for third party crimes …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Conflict of Laws--Torts--Lex Loci Delicti Is Proper Law When Parties Are Domiciled in Different Jurisdictions Unless Displacing That Law Advances Forum State's Substantive Law Purposes Without Impeding Interstate Relations or Predictability of Result

Plaintiff, an Ontario domiciliary, brought an action in New York for the wrongful death of her husband, also a domiciliary of Ontario,who was killed in a collision in that province' while a passenger in an automobile driven by defendant's intestate, a New York domiciliary. Defendant pleaded as an affirmative defense the Ontario guest statute, which restricts a guest's recovery to damages for injuries sustained only as a …

Trespassing Children: A Study In Expanding Liability, R. Neal Batson

Vanderbilt Law Review

When confronted with a case involving a child plaintiff, attorneys and the courts should recognize that the doctrine of attractive nuisance is only one of several theories on which the plaintiff may proceed against a landowner. The status of a plaintiff should first be determined. If the child is a trespasser, then either the constant trespasser theory, the known trespasser theory, or the doctrine of attractive nuisance may be applicable. It is possible, however, that the court may reject any one or all of these theories and decide the particular case under the general negligence principles of foreseeability of harm …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Constitutional Law--Freedom of Speech--Prior Restraint on Motion Picture Exhibition

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Criminal Law--Murder--Year and a Day Rule Rejected in Pennsylvania

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Real Property--Restraints on Alienation--Conveyance Giving Housing Cooperative First Option to Buy and Right to Redeem is not an Invalid Restraint on Alienation

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Taxation--Income Tax--Uncompensated Casualty Loss Due to Drought Allowed as Section 165 Deduction

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Torts--Negligence--Fireman in Performance of Duties Allowed Recovery as Invitee

Caveat Emptor In Sales Of Realty--Recent Assaults Upon The Rule, Leo Bearman, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

While caveat emptor is still ostensibly the law applicable to sales of realty in every common law jurisdiction, it no longer effectively protects the builder-vendor. In many instances he is now being held liable for damages or rescission for failure to meet what is in result, if not in fact, an implied warranty of good quality and fitness for purpose when he sells a newly constructed home. The expansions of previously settled doctrine by the courts to reach this result have occurred in the areas of implied warranty itself, and in the areas of express warranty, marketable title, fraud,and negligence. …