Property Law and Real Estate Commons^™

Vegas United Inv. Series 105 V. Celtic Bank, 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 61 (December 19, 2019), Jordan Gregory Cloward

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) Chapter 116 codifies the Uniform Common-Interest Ownership Act and outlines statutory regulations governing common-interest communities in Nevada. NRS Chapter 116 applies generally to all residential property owners’ associations (POAs) but does not automatically apply to nonresidential POAs. Nonresidential POAs may voluntarily elect to incorporate NRS Chapter 116 either in whole or in part. NRS Chapter 116 applies only to nonresidential POAs only to the extent expressly provided for by the incorporated statutory provisions.

Vegas United Investment Series 105, Inc. purchased a nonresidential property at a foreclosure sale pursuant to NRS § 116.3116. The conditions, covenants, and …

A Comparative Analysis Of Texas And New Mexico Oil And Gas Laws From A Title Examiner's Perspective, Carly Hewett

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

The statutory framework surrounding oil and gas law and the related title issues in Texas and New Mexico, while similar in many instances, do have some notable differences. New Mexico case law is very limited, which could be due to a variety of reasons, including a smaller state population and the fact that New Mexico and the United States own much of New Mexico’s oil and gas productive acreage. Therefore, practitioners often look to other jurisdictions, including Texas, for guidance. Texas’s secondary authority is also better developed with its own adopted title standards. New Mexico does not have such guidance. …

Come And Charge It: The Rise Of Utility-Scale Battery Energy Storage In Texas, Matthew A. Arth

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Affordable, reliable battery energy storage has long been the holy grail of the electric grid. From avoiding expensive transmission build-out to smoothing out fluctuations inherent to wind and solar resource output, batteries hold the promise of providing the solution to an ever more intermittent and distributed grid. Across the United States and particularly in Texas, that futuristic vision is beginning to approach reality as battery costs decline and favorable regulatory policy is implemented. This Article addresses the current state of battery energy storage system development and notes recent contributory policy developments at both the national and state level.

The Fight For Footprint: Energy Development And Competing Surface Use Issues, James D. Bradbury

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

The laws surrounding energy development in Texas have evolved over the past century, as Texas has been at the epicenter of the energy industry—and thereby, the center of energy law—since oil was discovered in Corsicana in 1894. Domestic, and even some international choice-of-law clauses, choose Texas law due to the Lone Star State’s dominance in the energy sector.

While Texas is often closely tied to oil and gas, its strong position in the energy market is not limited just to this industry. Texas is now the largest producer of wind energy and the seventh largest producer of solar energy in …

What's In A Name? The Changing Definition Of Colonias In Texas, Karina Rios

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Colonias are unincorporated subdivisions that lack access to basic infrastructure and safe, suitable housing. While research shows that there are currently seven definitions of a Colonia, those definitions have been ineffective in halting their proliferation or improving residents’ living conditions. The lack of infrastructure has led to significant health and environmental problems such as hepatitis, cholera, lice infestation, groundwater contamination, and air pollution. Additionally, counties have little power to regulate development in unincorporated areas, which has contributed to unsafe, substandard housing. Legislative efforts have attempted to address these problems but have had little to no success. State programs are attempting …

Dispossessing Detroit: How The Law Takes Property, Mary Kathlin Sickel

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Introduction for the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform's Symposium “Dispossessing Detroit: How the Law Takes Property,” hosted on November 9 and 10, 2019.

For-Profit Managers As Public Fiduciaries: A Neo-Classical Republican Perspective, Rob Atkinson

Scholarly Publications

This Article examines the fiduciary duties of for-profit managers in modern liberal society. To arrive at the right "mix" of these duties, it compares the fiduciary duties implied by a standard descriptive model of our society with two competing normative models: Lockean libertarianism on the "right" and neo-classical republicanism on the "left." This comparison shows that all three versions of liberalism, even the one with a Lockean nightwatchman state, require far more extensive duties than we now expect, including a professionalization of management itself. And it shows that the version of liberalism with the most expansive state, neo-classical republicanism, requires …

Workforce Housing And Housing Preference Policies Under The Fair Housing Act, Jeffrey D. Jones

Lewis & Clark Law Review

The workforce housing movement grew out of two urgent realities. First, the lack of affordable housing near where workers are employed has a substantial impact on local economies and local business. Second, the lack of affordable housing near where workers live undermines the twin goals of inclusive com- munities and reversing historical patterns of segregation. The latter remains a primary obstacle to equality of opportunity throughout the United States. There is no one definition of “workforce housing.” The leading definition of workforce housing is provided by the influential Urban Land Institute (ULI). The ULI defines workforce housing as housing that …

The Case For The Rodeo: An Analysis Of The Houston Livestock Show And Rodeo's Inverse Condemnation Case Against The City Of Houston, Emilio R. Longoria

Faculty Articles

This Article will explore questions at the frontier of eminent domain law using the Houston Rodeo's 2020 closure as its case study. In doing so, it will attempt to clear the muddied waters of the Court's jurisprudence on compensable takings. Because of the Rodeo's location, and because of the Supreme Court's recent decision in Knick v. Townshjp of Scott, this analysis will be done using both federal and Texas law. However, since many state jurisdictions either parallel federal takings law or have made their respective takings statutes more stringent - finding compensable takings more easily than Texas or the federal …

Oil & Gas Survey: West Virginia, Josh Fershee

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

This Article summarizes and discusses important recent developments in West Virginia’s oil and gas law as determined by recent West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals cases. There were no substantial legislative changes in the current period.

Experience Is A Dear Teacher--The Texas Wind Decommissioning Statute, Rod Wetsel

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

As is well known among both my students and colleagues, my professional life as a lawyer (and later as a law professor) took a monumental turn in 1999 when I reviewed and drafted my first wind lease in Nolan County, Texas. That lease, as well as all of the other wind leases at the time, contained contractional “clean up and restoration” clauses similar to many oil and gas leases then in use. Simply put, the leases provided that upon expiration or termination of the lease (which for a wind lease, unlike an oil and gas lease, might be fifty or …

When Home Is A Living Hell: Vulnerable Women And Sexual Harassment In Housing, Sarah Pricer

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Low-income women experience a nightmarish victimization when they are sexually harassed by landlords in their homes, homes many are desperate to keep. The staggering lack of data on this issue means laws and courts have been slow to address this phenomenon. Although courts have relied primarily on a Title VII employment-based sexual harassment framework to address this issue, it does not go far enough in protecting women in their homes. The home and the workplace are inherently different and thus require a different legal approach to redress the issue.

This comment examines sexual harassment in housing and why Texas women …

Enforcing The Ada And Stopping Serial Litigants: How The Commercial Real Estate Industry Can Play This Key Role, R. Cameron Saenz

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

This comment explores the evolution of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and argues for a new and more effective implementation of this important anti-discrimination law through the real estate industry. First, this comment discusses the intricacies of the ADA, including its revisions over time and impactful legislation it has spawned. Second, this comment addresses current practical and legal challenges to enforcement of Title III of the ADA, including commercial property owners’ lack of understanding ADA responsibilities, serial litigation, and standing in courts. Finally, this comment proposes a new emphasis on ADA enforcement within the real estate …

Real Property, J. Richard White, Amanda Grainger

SMU Annual Texas Survey

No abstract provided.

Families Belong Together: The Path To Family Sanctity In Public Housing, Mckayla Stokes

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

In its 2015 landmark civil rights decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court finally held that the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the United States Constitution guarantee same-sex couples’ marital equality. The Court’s unprecedented declaration that the right to marry is a fundamental right under the Due Process Clause strengthened married couples’ right to privacy because it subjects government actions infringing on marital unions to heightened scrutiny. The Supreme Court has the option to minimize the impact of Obergefell by interpreting the right to marriage very narrowly—as only encompassing the right to enter into a state-recognized union …

Zoning For Families, Sara C. Bronin

Indiana Law Journal

Is a group of eight unrelated adults and three children living together and sharing meals, household expenses, and responsibilities—and holding themselves out to the world to have long-term commitments to each other—a family? Not according to most zoning codes—including that of Hartford, Connecticut, where the preceding scenario presented itself a few years ago. Zoning, which is the local regulation of land use, almost always defines family, limiting those who may live in a dwelling unit to those who satisfy the zoning code’s definition. Often times, this definition is drafted in a way that excludes many modern living arrangements and preferences. …

Inclusive Economics And Home Loan Policies For Informal Workers, Kim Vu-Dinh

Faculty Scholarship

The United States has been suffering from a housing crisis that existed long before the proliferation of sub-prime loans and the Great Recession of 2008-2009. For decades, millions of gainfully employed workers have been institutionally excluded from homeownership, simply because they work in the informal economy. Because of this, the economic growth of households in this demographic has been stymied by discriminatory banking policies that heavily prioritize short-term profit maximization over borrower reliability, or loan viability. Many of those affected are historically disenfranchised people, who systematically have been excluded from the American dream of “a chicken in every pot and …

Introduction To The Conference: Commemorating The Life And Legacy Of Charles A. Reich, Rodger D. Citron

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction To Charles A. Reich’S Keeping Up: Walking With Justice Douglas, Rodger D. Citron

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Real Property, Linda S. Finley

Mercer Law Review

This Article surveys developments in Georgia real property law between June 1, 2018 and May 31, 2019. The Article covers noteworthy cases decided during this period by the Georgia Supreme Court, the Georgia Court of Appeals, the United States District Courts, and the United States Bankruptcy Court and includes information about legislation enacted during the survey period which affects real property law.

• Legislation
• Title to Real Property
• Sale of Real Property
• Easements, Covenants, and Boundaries
• Trespass and Nuisance
• Foreclosure of Real Property
• Condemnation and Eminent Domain
• Taxation of Real Property

Remarks And Recreation: Recent Changes In The Recreational Property Act And The State Of The Law Going Forward, M. Blake Walker

Mercer Law Review

In 1965, the Georgia General Assembly passed the Recreational Property Act (RPA or the Act), which generally grants landowners protection from liability when they open up their property for recreational purposes. Almost all states have enacted recreational use statutes, and it has been said that these statutes “codify tort principles that are universally recognized in common-law jurisdictions with regard to duties owed by owners and occupiers of property to those who come upon such property merely as licensees to use it for outdoor recreational purposes.” The Georgia version declares, “The purpose of this [law] is to encourage owners of land …

Property: Right Outcome, Wrong Reason—Gill V. Gill, 919 N.W.2d 297 (Minn. 2018), Wendy Cicotte

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Blights Out And Property Rights In New Orleans Post-Katrina, Yxta Maya Murray

Buffalo Law Review

In 2018’s Saint Bernard Parish Government v. United States, Federal Appeals Judge Timothy Dyk reversed a lower court decision finding that the federal government had violated the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause rights cherished by home-owning New Orleanians. The lower court maintained that such taking occurred via the Army Corps of Engineers’ building, maintaining, and failing to maintain the seventy-six mile long navigational channel known as the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MRGO), which increased the surge storms of Hurricane Katrina. Though MRGO helped turn Katrina into a superstorm that devastated thousands of properties, Judge Dyk determined that the lower court’s takings analysis …

The Aftermath Of Takings, Shelley Ross Saxer

American University Law Review

American society will face monumental challenges as we confront crumbling infrastructure, new technologies, and climate change adaptation. Eminent domain is a powerful tool that necessarily impacts local communities when used for infrastructure such as roads, mass transit, pipelines, the electrical grid, and border walls. We will likely need to rely on both public and private eminent domain to redevelop neighborhoods and make our communities more resilient to climate change by adapting land uses to rising sea levels, drought, wildfires, and severe weather events.

The Homesteading Rights Of Deserted Wives: A History, Hannah Haksgaard

Faculty Publications

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the federal government of the United States distributed 270 million acres of land to homesteaders. The federal land-grant legislation allowed single women, but not married women, to partake in homesteading. Existing in a “legal netherworld” between single and married, deserted wives did not have clear rights under the federal legislation, much like deserted wives did not have clear rights in American marital law. During the homesteading period, many deserted wives litigated claims in front of the Department of the Interior, arguing they had the right to homestead. This is the first article …

Stone Monuments And Flexible Laws: Removing Confederate Monuments Through Historic Preservation Laws, J. Peter Byrne

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay is a comment on an article by Jess Phelps and Jessica Owley, Etched in Stone: Historic Preservation Law and Confederate Monuments, published last year by the Florida Law Review. Contrary to their claims, historic preservation law does not seriously impede the removal or contextualization of Confederate memorials. The tangled and toxic heritage they signify does. The law rather creates the context within which parties contend about the meaning and continuing value of these monuments. Preservation law is not so much “etched in stone,” as a living requirement that we collectively, carefully address what remnants of the past …

Bayview Loan Servicing, Llc V. Providence Business Loan Fund, Inc., 200 A.3d 153 (R.I. 2019)., Ethan M. Armitano

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Raising The Meter In Rhode Island: A Better Approach To Rhode Island’S Net Metering Laws, Alyssa Lauren Lemire

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Growing Pains: Using Racketeering Law To Protect Property Rights From State-Sanctioned Marijuana Operations, Marci J. Gracey

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dispossessing Resident Voice: Municipal Receiverships And The Public Trust, Juliet M. Moringiello

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The residents of struggling cities suffer property dispossessions both as individual owners and as municipal residents. Their individual dispossessions are part of a cycle that often begins with industrial decline. In Detroit, for example, more than 100,000 residents have lost their homes to tax foreclosure over a four-year period that bracketed the city’s bankruptcy filing. Falling property values, job losses, and foreclosures affect municipal budgets by reducing tax revenues. As individual dispossessions exacerbate municipal financial crises, residents can also face the loss of municipal property. Struggling cities and towns often sell publicly owned property—from parks to parking systems—to balance municipal …