Law Commons^™

The Cost Of Unstable Property: Oil, Gas, And Other Confusing Mineral Interests, Chad J. Pomeroy

Faculty Articles

Most people think of property as a thing: a chunk of land or a piece of personal property. Most lawyers, hopefully, have a more sophisticated view and think of property as a set of rights that exists with respect to a thing and governs how one interacts with that thing vis-a-vis other people. But even that nuance is not refined enough for an oil and gas lawyer. Such a practitioner does, of course, view ownership as a set of rights, but the thing at hand is not just a piece of real property or the part of the land that …

If You Don't Care, Who Will?, Chad J. Pomeroy

Faculty Articles

As a property law professor, I have lately found myself thinking a lot about privacy rights. Initially, the two topics (property and privacy) perhaps do not seem closely related, but I think they are—or, at least, I think the tie between the two is becoming much more pronounced and important, as modern life becomes ever more techno-centric. specifically, I think that privacy rights are, at this point, essentially an outgrowth of property rights. That is, one's right to privacy is dependent on what we traditionally view as one's property rights. At least, I think this is the current state of …

Improving The Uniform Partition Of Heirs Property Act, Rishi Batra

Faculty Articles

Johnny Rivers was born and had lived his whole sixty-nine-year life on the same seventeen-acre tract on Clouter Creek near the Cainhoy Peninsula of Charleston, South Carolina. His father owned the land since 1888, and his family had worked the land and paid taxes, never missing a tax payment. He thought he and his family would live on the land for the rest of his life.

However, in 2000, he received a letter telling him he was the subject of a legal action called a "partition.” A family member who was a part owner of the land and whom Rivers …

Well Enough Alone: Liability For Wrongful Foreclosure, Chad J. Pomeroy

Faculty Articles

Part I of this Article both sets the stage for the current environment, in which banks and their officers and directors are under the spotlight and face an increasing amount of pressure due to their perceived role in the instigation of the Great Recession, and then examines in detail improvident lending and wrongful foreclosure, two of the wrongful acts banks have committed in connection with our current financial crisis that have generated a substantial amount of public interest and comment.

Part II examines the potential of officer and director liability for these disparate elements of the Great Recession, looking first …

Empathy's White Elephant: Responding To The Subprime Mortgage Crisis Without Denigrating The Poor, Adam J. Macleod

Faculty Articles

Empathy is the new coverture. Before state legislatures abolished it in the nineteenth century, the plea of coverture nullified any attempts by a married woman to exercise sovereignty over her property. Just as coverture did to married women, the now-well-known call for empathy in our nation's judgments threatens to deny poor borrowers, as a class, the freedom and responsibility to manage their assets. Empathy, as the ideal judge would employ it, would impede the agency of, and thus denigrate, persons within that class. The injustice (and ground for the ultimate abolition) of coverture arose from its failure to respect women …

Ulta And Non-Judicial Mortgage Foreclosure In Texas., Patricia E. Rant

St. Mary's Law Journal

Much of the current law governing secured land transactions remains closely akin to common law practices of feudal England. Consequently, certain aspects of the law in this area are provincial, anachronistic, and ill-suited to the needs of the modern borrower and lender. Even a cursory examination of Texas mortgage foreclosure law demonstrates certain shortcomings of the existing system. The Uniform Land Transactions Act (ULTA) professes to simplify, modernize, and unify state laws relating to real estate transactions. ULTA expects to accomplish these various purposes through uniformity in foreclosure proceedings. ULTA suggests several distinct advantages not currently available under Texas law. …

The Legal Effect Of Marital Separation Agreements Upon Community Property Status: Is It Time To Amend The Constitutional Definition Of Wife's Separate Property., Teresa A. Hunter

St. Mary's Law Journal

The present constitutional definition of married women’s separate property serves to protect the wife’s property rights and to preserve the community property system in Texas. However, the policy reasons for the constitutional definition no longer apply, since there is no present danger of the legislature reducing the property rights of married women or abandoning the community property system. Further, the needs and customs of the people of Texas have changed since the adoption of the original Texas Constitution in 1845. Today, it is estimated that thirty percent of couples who marry in the United States eventually divorce and sixty percent …

The Rights Of An Illegitimate Child Post - Gomez V. Perez: A Legitimate Situation., Deborah J. Venezia

St. Mary's Law Journal

Throughout Texas history the legal status of illegitimacy has prevented an illegitimate child from enjoying the right of parental support guaranteed to a legitimate child. The United States Supreme Court’s decision in Gomez v. Perez rendered unconstitutional the denial of an illegitimate child’s right to parental support on the basis of his illegitimacy. In response to Gomez, the Texas Legislature enacted Chapter 13 of the Texas Family Code (TFC) which provides for voluntary legitimation of an illegitimate child by the father. Section 13.01 gave an illegitimate child, whose natural father did not voluntarily acknowledge paternity, procedure to establish the parent-child …

Implied Covenant Of Development And Further Exploration - Dilemma Or Solution., James Irwin Calk

St. Mary's Law Journal

The typical oil and gas lease does not specifically enumerate the lessee’s obligations regarding development and further exploratory activity after initial production has been achieved on the lease. However, several jurisdictions, including Texas, have found these obligations as implied under a general covenant of development. The majority standard in determining a breach of this covenant is the reasonable prudent operator rule. Most importantly, can the operator reasonably expect profits from further exploration. In Texas, the burden of proving an expectation of profits falls on the lessor. However, as the Texas Supreme Court has not fully addressed the issue, there may …

Covenant Of Warranty Student Symposium: Texas Land Titles., Barbara E. Rosenberg

St. Mary's Law Journal

The covenant of warranty runs with the land and is a guarantee by the grantor that title is vested in them and will vest in the grantee upon conveyance. Although the covenant of warranty is an indemnification for failure of title, in Texas it is the broadest of the deed covenants, encompassing the covenant of quiet enjoyment and the covenant against encumbrances. The covenant of warranty requires the grantor to defend title as well as to indemnify for its failure. When there is a warranted title after the conveyance is made, the grantor is estopped to assert this after acquired …

The Commingling Of Separate And Community Funds: The Requirement Of Tracing In Texas., Charles J. Fitzpatrick

St. Mary's Law Journal

The status of specific items of property as separate or community property is a frequent subject of divorce litigation in Texas. Spouses will have unfriendly presumptions in favor of the community estate when separate property funds have been commingled. Rebutting these presumptions requires the spouse to trace the original separate property into the particular assets on hand at the time of the dispute. As Texas case law illustrates, however, tracing can be difficult, and a court’s strict adherence to it can cause harsh and often inequitable results. Although there have been instances of courts allowing less than specific tracing, these …

The Implied Warranty Of Habitability In Landlord-Tenant Relationships: The Necessity Of Application In Texas., Stephen Bond Paxson

St. Mary's Law Journal

Jurisdictions have reassessed the validity of the common law rule of caveat emptor as it relates to landlord-tenant transactions. Courts have imposed the implied warranty of habitability in the wake of the common law rule’s inapplicability to modern leasing situations. The implied warranty better reflects that the modern tenant seeks the use of a habitable dwelling for a temporary period of time. The inability to provide needed changes to the rule through limited exceptions and modifications provides the backdrop for Texas’ rejection of the common law doctrine of caveat emptor. Moreover, the courts have concerns over the harshness of the …

Benefits Vs. Money As Compensation In A Partial Taking., Shelby A. Jordan

St. Mary's Law Journal

This article compares and contrasts two different procedures courts use to ascertain a property's fair market value in an eminent domain proceeding. Twenty-seven states, the majority view, support the proposition that special but not general benefits may be deducted from any damages alleged to the remainder. However, neither special nor general benefits may be deducted from the value of the land taken. On the other hand, minority jurisdictions allow benefits to be set off from the total compensation awarded. These jurisdictions refuse to draw an artificial line between compensation for damages to the remainder and compensation for the land taken. …