Property Law and Real Estate Commons^™

Summary Of Einhorn V. Bac Home Loans Servicing, L.P., 128 Nev. Adv. Op. 61, David H. Rigdon

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Appeal from a District Court order finding that BAC Home Loan Servicing, L.P (BAC) met its showing of lack of bad faith during foreclosure mediation and affirming the issuance of a Letter of Certification.

Real Property, Linda S. Finley

Mercer Law Review

Given continued economic issues, it is tempting to turn any survey of Georgia real property law into a report solely about foreclosure law. The survey period of this Article-from June 1, 2011, through May 31, 2012-saw continued dire economic times for Georgia and the entire United States. As this Article was going to print, RealtyTrac, which reports national foreclosure statistics, released its mid-year 2012 foreclosure report showing that foreclosure activity had again increased in 125 of the nation's 212 metropolitan areas. Of the metropolitan areas making up the top ten on the foreclosure report, only Atlanta registered an increase in …

Transition Relief For Tax Reform’S Third Rail: Reforming The Home Mortgage Interest Deduction After The Housing Market Crash, Nicholaus W. Norvell

San Diego Law Review

This Comment argues that Congress should—in this order of preference—eliminate the mortgage interest deduction, replace it with a credit, or substantially modify it, and that Congress can adopt any of these policies without substantial short-term fallout in the housing market. Part II of this Comment examines how the mortgage interest deduction works, its history, and its intended benefits. Part III scrutinizes the deduction’s inability to achieve its primary objective—increasing homeownership—and examines its negative effects on housing prices, household indebtedness, the environment, and wealth disparity. Accordingly, this Part argues that Congress should reform the deduction, discusses three basic options available for …

Common Ownership And Equality Of Autonomy, Anna Di Robilant

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, common ownership has enjoyed unprecedented favour among policy-makers and citizens in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Conservation land trusts, affordable-housing co-operatives, community gardens, and neighborhood-managed parks are spreading throughout major cities. Normatively, these common-ownership regimes are seen as yielding a variety of benefits, such as a communitarian ethos in the efficient use of scarce resources, or greater freedom to interact and create in new ways. The design of common-ownership regimes, however, requires difficult trade-offs. Most importantly, successful achievement of the goals of common-ownership regimes requires the limitation of individual co-owners’ ability to freely use the common …

Rejection Of Nonresidential Leases Of Real Property In Bankruptcy: What Happens To The Mortgagee's Security Interest? , William E. Winfield

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legal Framework For Soviet Privatization, Olga Floroff, Susan Tiefenbrun

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Like-Kind Exchange Equity Conundrum, Bradley T. Borden

Florida Law Review

The tax-free treatment of like-kind exchanges presents one of tax law’s most compelling equity conundrums. Tax law generally does not tax property holders on the property’s appreciation but does tax gain or loss recognized by property sellers and exchangers of non-like-kind property. In the basic Aristotelian system, equity requires that likes be treated alike, but the system does not provide criteria to determine what is alike. Depending upon the criteria, exchangers of like-kind property can be similar either to holders or to sellers and exchangers of non-like-kind property. The equity conundrum asks whether tax law should treat exchangers of like-kind …

Florida's Eminent Domain Overhaul: Creating More Problems Than It Solved, Scott J. Kennelly

Florida Law Review

This Note initially discusses how the Florida Legislature’s reaction to Kelo v. City of New London was unnecessary. However, accepting that the legislature felt the influence of the body politic to enact significant eminent domain reform, this Note argues that the legislature did not fully consider the consequences of its actions. Instead, the legislature’s measures were overly broad and created ambiguity. Additionally, the measures will have unintended consequences that could leave landowners and the community worse off than under the previous system. Finally, this Note offers solutions that would both provide Florida with a more comprehensive eminent domain framework and …

Broke But Not Bankrupt: Consumer Debt Collection In State Courts, Richard M. Hynes

Florida Law Review

Virginia, with a population of about seven million, has averaged more than a million civil filings a year since the late 1980s. The overwhelming majority of these filings seek to collect debts from consumers, and most judgments go unpaid. Despite this apparent insolvency, civil litigation appears to be only tenuously related to consumer bankruptcy whether one looks at Virginia or at the nation as a whole. Nationally, the non-business bankruptcy filing rate rose by more than 350% between 1980 and 2002, while the civil filing rate rose by about 12%. Prior research suggests that relatively few bankrupt debtors have been …

Land Use By, For, And Of The People: Problems With The Application Of Initiatives And Referenda To The Zoning Process, Nicolas M. Kublicki

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cities, Property, And Positive Externalities, Gideon Parchomovsky, Peter Siegelman

William & Mary Law Review

Cities are the locales of numerous interactions that generate externalities—both negative and positive. Although the common law provides a vast array of mechanisms for limiting negative externalities, there is a striking absence of provisions for stimulating the production of positive ones. As a consequence, activities whose social benefits are greater than their private costs are not undertaken, with a resulting efficiency loss.

In this Article, we demonstrate how cities can develop commercial districts that allow for the capture of positive externalities by following the example of suburban malls. In malls, anchor stores provide positive externalities—additional customers—to neighboring stores. Anchors capture …

An Economic View Of Innovation And Property Right Protection In The Expanded Regulatory State, J. Miles Hanisee

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Administrative Mandamus As A Prerequisite To Inverse Condemnation: "Healing" California's Confused Takings Law , Sharon L. Browne

Pepperdine Law Review

This article addresses and reviews the distinctions in purpose and scope between actions for inverse condemnation and petitions for administrative writs, traces the blending of these two very different instruments by the California courts, and shows how this policy has subverted constitutional rights in California.

Teaching Real Property Law As Real Estate Lawyering, Roger Bernhardt

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Wills, Trusts, And Estates, J. William Gray Jr., Katherine E. Ramsey

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The New Progressive Property And The Low-Income Housing Conflict, Zachary Bray

BYU Law Review

The foundation of property law has been much debated in recent years, as several scholars have sought to provide a theoretical alternative to what they call the dominant, “law-and-economics” approach to property. In place of the law-and-economics approach, these scholars advance a new theoretical approach, which I call “the new progressive property.” At its core, this new approach favors rules thought to promote the collective well-being of the larger community while ensuring that relatively disadvantaged members of society have access to certain basic resources. This Article explores the boundaries and practical implications of the new progressive property. To do so, …

Closing Pandora's Box: Proposing A Statutory Solution To The Supreme Court's Failure To Adequately Protect Property, Ryan Merriman

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Back From The Abyss: Real Estate Tax Planning From The Bottom Up (Slides), Steven M. Friedman

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Graffiti Museum: A First Amendment Argument For Protecting Uncommissioned Art On Private Property, Margaret L. Mettler

Michigan Law Review

Graffiti has long been a target of municipal legislation that aims to preserve property values, public safety, and aesthetic integrity in the community. Not only are graffitists at risk of criminal prosecution but property owners are subject to civil and criminal penalties for harboring graffiti on their land. Since the 1990s, most U.S. cities have promulgated graffiti abatement ordinances that require private property owners to remove graffiti from their land, often at their own expense. These ordinances define graffiti broadly to include essentially any surface marking applied without advance authorization from the property owner. Meanwhile, graffiti has risen in prominence …

Taking The Wind Out Of The Government's Sails?: Forfeitures And Just Compensation, J. Kelly Strader

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Condos, Cats, And Cc&Rs: Invasion Of The Castle Common, Armand Arabian

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Is The United States V. Olin Decision Full Of Sound And Fury Signifying Nothing?: The Future Of Retroactive Liability Of The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, And Liability Act, Kevin J. Slattum

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Summary Of In Re: Fontainebleau Las Vegas Holdings, Llc, 128 Nev. Adv. Op. 53, David H. Rigdon

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court considered three questions certified by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida relating to the application of equitable subrogation and enforceability of contractual subordination against mechanics’ lien claimants under Nevada’s mechanics’ and materialmen’s lien statutes, codified in NRS Chapter 108.

America’S Favorite Illiquid Investment: An Examination Of The Changing Social Perception Of Homeownership , Jeremiah J. Lee

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

Purchasing a home is traditionally touted as one of the best investments an individual can make, but this advice may be simply too generic to be useful or applied too broadly to be good counsel. Social pressures encouraging homeownership in America have been fostered by decades of government programs. Modern uses of the family home as a financial investment, such as flipping homes or using a home equity line of credit to subsidize a higher standard of living, illustrate a perceptual shift in which many modern homeowners have come to consider the family home principally a tool for financial gain …

The Right To Publicity After Death: Postmortem Personality Rights In The Wake Of Experiencehendrix V. Hendrixlicensing.Com, Aubrie Hicks

Seattle University Law Review

While the states are fairly consistent in protecting the rights of living individuals, the level of protection for deceased celebrities varies among the states. Some states allow the right to extend beyond death, while others refuse to recognize a postmortem right of publicity. Even among states that do recognize a postmortem right of publicity, the right is protected to varying degrees, with some states providing explicit statutory protections and others providing only common law protections. Given the inconsistencies among the states, the continuing right to publicity after death has been the subject of much litigation over the last few years, …

Unjustifiable Expectations: Laying To Rest The Ghosts Of Allotment-Era Settlers, Ann E. Tweedy

Seattle University Law Review

During the allotment era, the federal government took land from tribes and parceled some of it out to individual tribal members, while, in most cases, selling off the remainder to non-Indian settlers. Those actions, which are properly understood as unconstitutional takings, have been reinforced through decades of Supreme Court precedent. Specifically, the Court has used the now repudiated federal allotment policy, which contemplated eventual abolition of tribal governments, to justify contemporary incursions on tribal jurisdictional authority as well as other limitations on tribal sovereign rights. In this way, the Court builds new injustices upon old ones. This Article responds to …

Empowering Settlors: How Proper Language Can Increase The Enforceability Of A Mandatory Arbitration Provision In A Trust, S. I. Strong

Faculty Publications

With hostile trust litigation reaching epidemic proportions, many people within the trust industry are interested in identifying new and less expensive ways to resolve trust-related disputes. Arbitration is often proposed as a possible alternative, although questions exist about whether and to what extent a mandatory arbitration provision found in a trust will be considered enforceable by a court. Up until now, most commentary in this area of law has focused on purely jurisprudential issues, with little attention being paid to the practical efforts that settlors can make to increase the enforceability of arbitration provisions found in trusts. This Article takes …

Perspectives - Benjamin Webb Of The Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta, Georgia, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

Benjamin Webb discusses the rewards and challenges of being responsible for facilities management and energy for the largest mixed-program cultural center in the Southeastern U.S.

Profile - Legal Aid Center Of Southern Nevada, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

Responding to an ever-increasing need for pro bono legal services, the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada recently broke ground in downtown Las Vegas on what will become its new headquarters. Professor James Hagy, Director of The Rooftops Project, talks with Eexecutive Director Barbara Buckley about the project and the role that the new facility will play in advancing the Center’s mission and its services to clients.

Perspectives - Alyssa Bellew Of The Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church Of Pasadena, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

At manyplaces of worship, responsibility for oversight of the physical facilities falls to administrative staff as one more adjunct to an already busy schedule. At others, property tasks may be left to volunteers. The “on-the-job training” may often be self-taught. Professor James Hagy explores these challenges with Alyssa Bellew, Administrative Director of Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church.