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Seattle University Law Review

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Articles 241 - 266 of 266

Full-Text Articles in Property Law and Real Estate

Planner's Panacea Or Pandora's Box: A Realistic Assessment Of The Role Of Urban Growth Areas In Achieving Growth Management Goals, Keith W. Dearborn, Ann M. Gygi Jan 1993

Planner's Panacea Or Pandora's Box: A Realistic Assessment Of The Role Of Urban Growth Areas In Achieving Growth Management Goals, Keith W. Dearborn, Ann M. Gygi

Seattle University Law Review

Over the past twenty years, Urban Growth Areas (UGAs) have become a tool of choice to manage growth. Numerous states and local jurisdictions have mandated UGAs in hope of confining urbanization, reducing sprawl, protecting open space and resource lands, and minimizing infrastructure investment. Washington State joined the trend in 1990 when it adopted the Growth Management Act (GMA), which requires certain counties to establish UGAs as a central component of its "bottom up" growth management strategy. Nonetheless, thoughtful criticisms have been offered regarding the utility of UGAs to accomplish intended growth management goals, and concerns have emerged regarding unintended consequences …

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Between Scylla And Charybdis: Growth Management Act Implementation That Avoids Takings And Substantive Due Process Limitations, Jeffrey M. Eustis Jan 1993

Between Scylla And Charybdis: Growth Management Act Implementation That Avoids Takings And Substantive Due Process Limitations, Jeffrey M. Eustis

Seattle University Law Review

This Article begins with an overview of the GMA. It then proceeds with a summary of recent case law under the Takings Clause and substantive due process doctrine. After laying this groundwork, this Article focuses on four particular areas of growth management control and explores how local legislation implementing these areas of control would be analyzed under the Takings Clause and substantive due process. These four areas of land use regulation include: critical area protections, resource land designations, development phasing requirements for concurrency and urban growth areas, and impact fees for public facilities and services. This Article then concludes with …

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The Concurrency Requirement Of The Washington State Growth Management Act, Thomas M. Walsh, Roger A. Pearce Jan 1993

The Concurrency Requirement Of The Washington State Growth Management Act, Thomas M. Walsh, Roger A. Pearce

Seattle University Law Review

When the Washington State Legislature enacted the Growth Management Act (GMA) in 1990, it established a concurrency requirement in the transportation area and authorized local governments to establish concurrency requirements in other areas such as schools, parks, and public services. This Article seeks to inform the debate as to the GMA's requirements for concurrency regulations, the key issues in implementing concurrency regulations, and statutory and constitutional limits on the implementation of regulations. After detailing the GMA's transportation concurrency requirement, the Article will discuss whether the GMA requires concurrency for public facilities other than transportation, will highlight the key issues in …

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Dashed "Investment-Backed" Expectations: Will The Constitution Protect Property Owners From Excesses In Implementation Of The Growth Management Act?, Elaine Spencer Jan 1993

Dashed "Investment-Backed" Expectations: Will The Constitution Protect Property Owners From Excesses In Implementation Of The Growth Management Act?, Elaine Spencer

Seattle University Law Review

Section I briefly discusses the basic principles of takings law as enunciated by prior cases, as well as the United States Supreme Court's recent decision in Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, and the Washington Supreme Court's recent decisions in Sintra, Inc. v. Seattle and Robinson v. Seattle. Although the Lucas decision has received considerable publicity, it advanced the state of the law rather little. The real guidance for future decisions arising out of the GMA will come from earlier United States Supreme Court decisions and the Washington Supreme Court's decisions in Sintra, Robinson, and Lutheran …

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A Buyer's Catalogue Of Prepurchase Precautions To Minimize Cercla Liability In Commercial Real Estate Transactions, Geoffrey Douglas Patterson Jan 1992

A Buyer's Catalogue Of Prepurchase Precautions To Minimize Cercla Liability In Commercial Real Estate Transactions, Geoffrey Douglas Patterson

Seattle University Law Review

Because the cost and incidence of hazardous waste contamination are soaring and because the courts favor broad interpretations of CERCLA's liability provisions, counsel for prospective purchasers of commercial real estate must take certain prepurchase precautions to minimize potential CERCLA liability. This Comment pro- vides practical suggestions as to the aim and form of those precautions. In Part II, this Comment first examines the basic statutory framework and liability scheme of CERCLA. Part III discusses the common law principles of successor liability and their relation to CERCLA's liability mechanism. Finally, in Part IV, this Comment presents a variety of preventive law …

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Who Pays Reet On Your Street: Washington State's Real Estate Excise Tax In Light Of The 1991 Corporate Transfer Act And Beyond—How Can The Legislature Solve Deer Park Pine?, Georges H.G. Yates Jan 1992

Who Pays Reet On Your Street: Washington State's Real Estate Excise Tax In Light Of The 1991 Corporate Transfer Act And Beyond—How Can The Legislature Solve Deer Park Pine?, Georges H.G. Yates

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment aims to give the reader a complete understanding of Washington’s Real Estate Excise Tax. Further, this Comment advocates replacing the current law. Specifically, this Comment argues that REET is in desperate need of repair; it then considers the options available to the Washington State Legislature in 1993. The Comment concludes that, with a few important alternations, the solution lies in a proposal that died in the House Revenue Committee in 1992.

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It Walks Like A Duck, Talks Like A Duck, . . . But Is It A Duck? Making Sense Of Substantial Similarity Law As It Applies To User Interfaces , Ellen M. Bierman Jan 1992

It Walks Like A Duck, Talks Like A Duck, . . . But Is It A Duck? Making Sense Of Substantial Similarity Law As It Applies To User Interfaces , Ellen M. Bierman

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment recommends how courts should apply the substantial similarity analysis to user interfaces. Specifically, this Comment (1) delineates the state of the law in the Ninth Circuit and explains how the recent changes should be interpreted with respect to user interfaces; (2) establishes an analytic framework for evaluating proposed substantial similarity tests through the enumeration of a set of goals specific to user interfaces; and (3) uses this analytic framework to evaluate and endorse a test that applies traditional copyright doctrine to a logical and consistent manner.

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The Implied Termination Of Community Property Agreements Upon Permanent Separation, William Oltman Jan 1990

The Implied Termination Of Community Property Agreements Upon Permanent Separation, William Oltman

Seattle University Law Review

This Article will assess the effect of living separate and apart in a defunct marriage on the typical community property agreement, including both inter-vivos and at-death elements. First, as background, this Article will explain and analyze the Washington law status of the concept of living separate and apart. Second, this Article will then review the facts and the holding of In re Estate of Lyman, an appeals court case illustrating the typical fact situation and setting forth the approach of the Washington Supreme Court in this area. It remains the best and most instructive example to date of this …

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Death By Sepa: Substantive Denials Under Washington's State Environmental Policy Act, Roger Pearce Jan 1990

Death By Sepa: Substantive Denials Under Washington's State Environmental Policy Act, Roger Pearce

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment seeks to answer the question raised by West Main II and Cougar Mountain of what procedural processes and substantive policies may be used in SEPA-based denials. After examining the nature of substantive SEPA authority and the relationship between substantive SEPA and Washington's vested rights doctrine, the Comment will discuss West Main II and Cougar Mountain and will argue that the two cases are consistent. It will then provide an informative assessment of the current limits of substantive SEPA authority. The Comment concludes by suggesting the following legislative or judicial changes in SEPA law: earlier vesting of SEPA policies, …

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What Shelter Remains For Builder/Vendors Under Rcw 4.16.300-320 After Pfeifer V. Bellingham?, Peter Sandomire Jan 1990

What Shelter Remains For Builder/Vendors Under Rcw 4.16.300-320 After Pfeifer V. Bellingham?, Peter Sandomire

Seattle University Law Review

This Note criticizes Pfeifer's incomplete resolution of the apparent conflict between Wash. Rev. Code §§ 4.16.300-.320 and § 353 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts and calls for a reconsideration of the case. The Note is premised on the general validity of statutes of repose and the merit of the policies that they promote. The Note first reviews briefly the development of statutes of repose generally, how they operate, and how courts in Washington and in other jurisdictions have applied them. It then analyzes the development of the Restatement's § 353 and its policy. Next, it examines the Pfeifer court's …

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Regulatory Taking Doctrine In Washington: Now You See It, Now You Don't, Richard L. Settle May 1989

Regulatory Taking Doctrine In Washington: Now You See It, Now You Don't, Richard L. Settle

Seattle University Law Review

Within a recent two-month period, the Washington Supreme Court issued decisions in two major regulatory taking cases, Orion Corporation v. State, and Allingham v. City of Seattle. In both cases, land use regulations were challenged on the basis of the taking clauses of the federal and state constitutions. This Article analyzes and critically assesses Orion's ambitious doctrinal initiative in light of the Allingham enigma and charts a tentative course toward more coherent regulatory taking doctrine. A pervasive and hopeful theme of the Article is that a latent, largely unarticulated or misstated doctrine exists, just waiting for explicit judicial …

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The Public Trust Doctrine In Washington, A. Reid Allison Iii Jan 1987

The Public Trust Doctrine In Washington, A. Reid Allison Iii

Seattle University Law Review

This Article addresses questions of resource allocation and property rights, first, by presenting a brief description of the historical and legal foundation of coastal resource allocation in the United States: the “public trust doctrine.” Second, a survey of the Washington experience demonstrates, surprisingly, that a state whose 2,337 miles of marine coastline approximately equals the length of the entire remaining coastline of the contiguous western United States, has managed to establish a viable and responsive regulatory regime governing coastal resource use with scarcely a mention in its laws of the “public trust doctrine.”

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The Effect Of Tax Foreclosure Sales On Servitudes: Olympia V. Palze, Daniel W. Galvin Jan 1987

The Effect Of Tax Foreclosure Sales On Servitudes: Olympia V. Palze, Daniel W. Galvin

Seattle University Law Review

This Note analyzes the historical position taken by Washington courts regarding servitudes and tax sales prior to and subsequent to the 1959 statute dealing with easements. The Note next examines the Palzer holding, the degree to which it aligns Washington's position with that of the majority, and its limited support for future litigation involving other forms of servitudes.

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Miotke V. City Of Spokane: Nuisance Or Inverse Condemnation—Theories For Government Environmental Liability, Gary L. Baker Jan 1986

Miotke V. City Of Spokane: Nuisance Or Inverse Condemnation—Theories For Government Environmental Liability, Gary L. Baker

Seattle University Law Review

A recent decision by the Washington State Supreme Court, Miotke v. City of Spokane, may broadly affect the right to and type of recovery that will be available to persons whose property rights are infringed either by an agent of the state or by private parties. Miotke involved the dumping of untreated sewage into a river, with the sewage flowing into a lake and interfering with lakefront property owners' enjoyment of their property. The court in Miotke faced a set of claims in property, tort, and state environmental law. The court recognized the significance of its decision and the …

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The Residential Tenant's Right To Freedom Of Political Expression, James E. Lobsenz, Timothy M. Swanson Jan 1986

The Residential Tenant's Right To Freedom Of Political Expression, James E. Lobsenz, Timothy M. Swanson

Seattle University Law Review

This Article outlines the arguments to be made on behalf of residential tenants who display political signs and who encounter threats of eviction, rent increases, and other forms of landlord opposition. In Section II, the Article describes the development of the general principles of constitutional law applicable to disputes between property owners and tenants who wish to use the property owners’ premises as a forum for the expression of the tenants’ ideas and beliefs. Tracing the history of the United States Supreme Court rulings in this area, the authors analyze the waxing and waning of first amendment speech rights, the …

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Constitutional Review Of State Eminent Domain Legislation: Hawaii Housing Authority V. Midkiff, Stuart P. Kastner Jan 1985

Constitutional Review Of State Eminent Domain Legislation: Hawaii Housing Authority V. Midkiff, Stuart P. Kastner

Seattle University Law Review

The State of Hawaii has a unique land ownership problem directly affecting many of the state's homeowners: a handful of people own a large percentage of the land available for residential housing." Consequently, a significant proportion of homeowners rent, under long-term leases, the land on which their homes are built. In 1967 the Hawaii legislature took action to break up this concentration of ownership by enacting the Land Reform Act. The legislature declared that such ownership was a threat to the health, safety, and welfare of Hawaii's citizens because of its significant contribution to the spiraling inflation of land values. …

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Dependent Covenants In Commercial Leases: Hindquarter Corp. V. Property Development Corp., Tracy R. Antley Faust Jan 1985

Dependent Covenants In Commercial Leases: Hindquarter Corp. V. Property Development Corp., Tracy R. Antley Faust

Seattle University Law Review

This Note demonstrates that the Washington Supreme Court correctly applied contract principles to the Hindquarter lease dispute. The Note first reviews the historical development of dependent covenants in both residential and commercial contexts. After setting out this important background information, the Note examines Hindquarter and the three factors that influenced the Washington Supreme Court in following the dependent covenants trend: (1) material inducements to execute the lease; (2) the intent of the parties; and (3) equity and policy considerations. The Note concludes that, even though the landlord prevailed in Hindquarter, commercial tenants stand to gain most from the supreme …

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Cardozo Revisited: Liability To Third Parties; A Real Property Perspective, Robert Kratovil Jan 1984

Cardozo Revisited: Liability To Third Parties; A Real Property Perspective, Robert Kratovil

Seattle University Law Review

One of the most outstanding jurists of our time, Justice Benjamin Cardozo, articulated a principle spanning the "seamless web" of the law which, unfortunately, has been obscured by the attempts of courts, casebook writers, and law professors to pigeonhole the principle into familiar categories. Justice Cardozo established the principle that a person who undertakes a task is liable for injury to remote third parties, regardless of lack of privity, which arises from the person's negligent performance of the task. Cardozo also enunciated an exception to this rule which developed into a widely accepted opposing rule. This Article first traces the …

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Real Estate Contracts And The Doctrine Of Equitable Conversion In Washington: Dispelling The Ashford Cloud, Linda S. Hume Jan 1984

Real Estate Contracts And The Doctrine Of Equitable Conversion In Washington: Dispelling The Ashford Cloud, Linda S. Hume

Seattle University Law Review

The principal thesis of this Article is that property and contract questions should not be solved independently and are most usefully approached in a distinct order. Because the installment contract divides the incidents of property ownership usually associated with legal title between the parties to the contract, it should be treated differently than the earnest money contract in which the incidents of ownership are not divided. In addition, it is important to first answer some remedial questions before proceeding to make decisions about the property interest of each party to the contract. To support this thesis, this Article explains in …

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Boundary Law: The Rule Of Monument Control In Washington, Jerry Broadus Jan 1984

Boundary Law: The Rule Of Monument Control In Washington, Jerry Broadus

Seattle University Law Review

The rule of monument control has developed as a necessary corollary to the Statute of Frauds as applied to land conveyances. Confusion in the application of the two rules can be avoided by examining their underlying equitable policies. A consideration of these policies is necessary for a reasoned approach to judging the admissibility and weight of evidence needed to prove a boundary monument. San Juan County v. Ayer illustrates the confusion which can result when a court attempts to apply these rules in a technical manner divorced from their historical background. Many boundary disputes could properly be resolved by using …

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Forfeiture Clauses In Land Installment Contracts: Time For Equitable Foreclosure, Donna R. Roper Jan 1984

Forfeiture Clauses In Land Installment Contracts: Time For Equitable Foreclosure, Donna R. Roper

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment will trace the history of the Washington courts' decision to deny foreclosure by judicial sale in land installment contracts with forfeiture clauses and will demonstrate the viability and preferability of foreclosure by judicial sale as an equitable remedy for a defaulting buyer. The Comment will also describe how other states, either legislatively or judicially, have resolved the inequity of forfeitures.

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In Re Puget Sound Power And Light Company: Eminent Domain By Corporations Reevaluated, Julie Anderson Jan 1982

In Re Puget Sound Power And Light Company: Eminent Domain By Corporations Reevaluated, Julie Anderson

Seattle University Law Review

This note examines In re Puget Sound Power and Light Company and the court’s holding that due process requires a private condemnor to prove public use and necessity by a preponderance of the evidence. The note recognizes that the court correctly shifted the burden of proof to the condemnor, but argues that the court could have grounded its decision in the Washington procedural statute governing corporate condemnation and avoided the constitutional question. The note advocates for courts interpreting the statute for corporations to require strict judicial supervision of the eminent domain actions of private entities.

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Alderwood Associatesv. Washington Environmental Council: State Action And The Washington State Constitution, Suzanne Lee Elliott, Jane Elizabeth Pearson Jan 1982

Alderwood Associatesv. Washington Environmental Council: State Action And The Washington State Constitution, Suzanne Lee Elliott, Jane Elizabeth Pearson

Seattle University Law Review

In Alderwood Associates v. Washington Environmental Council, the Washington Supreme Court reversed a temporary restraining order forbidding the defendant's solicitation or demonstration on plaintiff's privately owned shopping mall. Although there was no majority opinion because the court split four-one-four, the result of the several opinions is that the Washington constitution now bars private as well as state action that interferes with the gathering of initiative signatures on certain private property. However, four justices also concluded that the free speech sections of the Washington constitution restricts private as well as state action. The Alderwood result is desirable, but could have …

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Retaliatory Eviction And Periodic Tenants In Washington, Phillip Raymond Jan 1981

Retaliatory Eviction And Periodic Tenants In Washington, Phillip Raymond

Seattle University Law Review

This comment evaluates the availability of the retaliatory eviction defense to periodic tenants in Washington State in light of a recent appellate court decision, Stephanus v. Anderson, denying periodic tenants the defense where the statutorily required twenty day termination notice is provided. An analysis of the basic policies underlying the Act, to ensure safe, sanitary housing conditions and to prohibit landlords' retaliatory actions against tenants exercising their rights to attain decent housing conditions, indicates periodic tenants be allowed to assert the retaliatory eviction defense. Additionally, the language of the retaliatory action provision of the statute supports an interpretation granting …

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Enforceability Of Land Use Servitudes Benefiting Local Government In Washington, Stephen Phillabaum Jan 1979

Enforceability Of Land Use Servitudes Benefiting Local Government In Washington, Stephen Phillabaum

Seattle University Law Review

Washington courts are free to enforce publicland use servitudes. Of the elements required for a servitude to run with the land, form, notice, and touch and concern on the burden side do not bar running. Only the touch and concern element applied on the benefit side is a potential bar. Washington conceivably could allow public land use servitudes to run with the land by following the minority position of not requiring touch and concern on the benefit side. A less stringent theory, however, is available to enforce public land use servitudes. Washington has not adopted a rule that public servitudes …

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Equitable Conversion In Washington: The Doctrine That Dares Not Speak Its Name, George R. Nock, John A. Strait, John W. Weaver Jan 1977

Equitable Conversion In Washington: The Doctrine That Dares Not Speak Its Name, George R. Nock, John A. Strait, John W. Weaver

Seattle University Law Review

Since the 1925 decision of Ashford v. Reese, Washington has had the distinction of being the only American jurisdiction totally, albeit implicitly, to reject the doctrine of equitable conversion. Ashford was overruled in 1977, in a remarkable opinion which simultaneously, and explicitly, rejected the doctrine of equitable conversion, thus maintaining Washington's unique status with respect to that doctrine. But the opinion failed to provide a substitute for either the rule of Ashford or the contrary doctrine of equitable conversion, both of which it emphatically abjured. The result is an unbroken line of Washington cases consistent with only one rule of …

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