Law Commons^™

Recent studies of American conveyancing have shown a tendency to compartmentalize the process of land transfer into stages: finding a property, financing its acquisition, proving title to it, and closing the transaction. This certainly helps clarify descriptive studies, but it diverts attention from the deficiencies in the existing process. The stages outlined are too neat and lack a sense of continuity. For example, between the finding and the closing stages lie the drafting and execution of a contract of sale, escrow instructions, a mortgage, and finally a deed. In negotiating the terms of these documents, one of the deficiencies found …

INTRODUCTION: Zoning ordinances enacted under state enabling laws and home rule charters of municipalities are customarily entitled to a presumption that they were validly enacted, are within the powers delegated to the locality by the state, and are reasonable in effect. This presumption makes an exercise of the zoning power more easily defensible; one attacking the ordinance must show that it was passed incorrectly, or is beyond the scope of municipal authority, or is unreasonable, capricious or arbitrary in effect. Zoning officials have possessed this initial advantage in any litigation since the landmark decision of Village of Euclid v. Ambler …