Property Law and Real Estate Commons^™

Solar Rights And Restrictive Covenants: A Microeconomic Analysis , Arto Becker

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This comment addresses the enforceability of restrictive covenants in relation to solar energy rights. Articulating the framework for development of solar energy, this comment works through an economic model formulated by Professors Ellickson, Coase, Calabresi, and Malemed. Looking for an efficient allocation of resources, this comment proposes a modernization of common law property principles to ensure the proper growth of solar energy.

The Applicability Of Shaffer To The Quasi-In-Rem Attachment Of Foreigners' Assets, Steven H. Becker

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Note proposes to examine the nature of United States contacts availed of by foreign defendants, and to determine the impact of Shaffer on the potential assertion of quasi-in-rem jurisdiction based on those contacts. It is instructive to consider quasi-in-rem jurisdiction's relation to four possible scenarios involving a foreign defendant: (1) the foreign defendant who owns real estate in this country; or (2) maintains deposits in United States banks; or (3) invests in securities that are registered locally; or (4) extends credit to United States companies or individuals on a regular basis. This Note ultimately concludes that in light of …

Secrecy And Real Property, Dale A. Whitman

Faculty Publications

It is not unusual for owners of real property to wish to conceal from government or the public either the fact of their ownership or certain salient characteristics of the property they hold. The objective of this article is to consider the extent to which this desire for secrecy is supported by sound policy and American legal doctrine. It will focus on the civil recourse available to an owner of real property against private persons who, without the owner's knowledge and consent, reveal information about the ownership or physical characteristics of the property. The article will also consider whether the …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Notice By Publication Is Constitutionally Inadequate In Tax Sale Proceeding, Martin A. Geer

Scholarly Works

In 1976 the Michigan Supreme Court’s determined in Doe v. State that procedural due process requires an owner of a significant interest in real property to be given notice of the state’s foreclosure petition and a meaningful opportunity for a hearing which he may challenge the state’s claim that property taxes remain unpaid without legal justification. This casenote examines the existing legal precedent during the Doe v. State decision, the Michigan Supreme Court’s decision and analysis, and the legislature’s actions following the decision.

Financing Condominiums And Cooperatives, Dale A. Whitman

Faculty Publications

This article will deal with legal problems relating to the financing of condominiums and cooperatives. While space does not permit a detailed treatment of the non-financing aspects of these forms of ownership, a rudimentary overview of the legal relationships involved will preface discussion of the central topic. Both condominiums and cooperatives are legal formats for “unit ownership” – that is, the ownership of a physically defined portion of a larger parcel of (usually improved) real property. In the majority of cases, the “unit” is a residential apartment in a multifamily housing project. Condominiums are much more tightly controlled by stage …

The Installment Land Contract--A National Viewpoint, Dale A. Whitman, Grant S. Nelson

Faculty Publications

The installment land contract is rarely used in some states, but in many it is the predominant means of vendor financing of land sales. Much has been written about it, but nearly all of the literature focuses on the law of one particular state or another. Our purpose here is to provide a nationwide perspective, with particular attention to the states in which the contract has been widely used and extensively litigated. We propose to examine the reasons for the installment contract's popularity, its advantages and disadvantages, and the risks it presents to both vendor and purchaser.

Assignment And Subletting Of Leased Premises: The Unreasonable Withholding Of Consent, Jacob L. Todres, Carl M. Lerner

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The law generally does not favor restrictions on the alienability of property and holds that a tenant may assign or sublet a lease, unless the lease specifically provides otherwise. For instance, courts will enforce the parties' bargain, and uphold provisions in a lease that states that it is non-transferable or that it is transferable only upon the landlord's consent. However, if a lease states that the landlord will not unreasonably withhold consent to a transfer of the lease, when is a landlord's refusal to give consent unreasonable? This article examines the common law parameters of determining unreasonableness, and finds that …

Virginia Survey Of Law: Property Section; Trusts And Estates Section, Lynda L. Butler

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Substantive Validity Challenges Under The Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code: The Practitioner And The New Procedures, Benjamin N. Henszey, Benjamin Novak

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Eminent Domain--Blight Declaration--Extensive Delay In Initiating Condemnation After Declaration Of Blight May Constitute A Taking Under State Constitution, Janine P. Hornicek

Fordham Urban Law Journal

In 1958, the City of Trenton examined the possibility of redeveloping a large portion of its downtown area. In 1967, after a tortuous planning process, the land designated for redevelopment was declared blighted. Plaintiff, the owner of a large commercial building in this redevelopment area, alleged that in 1963 it began losing tenants because of the widespread publicity given to the threatened condemnation. After the 1967 declaration of blight, the area deteriorated markedly. By 1973, plaintiff’s building was almost entirely vacant, yielding $6,300 in rent compared to costs of $9,500 in insurance changes and $30,000 in annual property taxes. Plaintiff …

Criminal Redistribution Of Stolen Property: The Need For Law Reform, G. Robert Blakey, Michael Goldsmith

Journal Articles

The development of sophisticated fencing systems for the sale of stolen property to consumers has paralleled the industrialization of society. Although crimes against property and attempts to control them have ancient origins, most theft before the Industrial Revolution was committed for immediate consumption by the thieves and their accomplices rather than for redistribution in the market-place. Society's small population, inadequate transportation and communication systems, and technological inability to mass produce identical goods constrained large-scale fencing because there were few buyers and because stolen property could be readily identified. The unprecedented economic and demographic growth in eighteenth-century Europe, however, removed these …

The Great Section 38 Property Muddle, J. A. Cragwall, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Twelve full years have elapsed since section 38 property made its first appearance on the stage of tax law. In those twelve years, a complicated, confusing, ad hoc, and often inconsistent body of rulings and judicial decisions has grown up around the definitional regulation; words and phrases have acquired strange new meanings and connotations in the lush overgrowth of legal reasoning clinging to that regulation. The paradoxes in the regulation (such as that addressed in Weirick) and, more often, the ambiguities resulting from an almost universal failure by the regulations to define, instead of simply illustrate, its terms (such as …

Creditors' Remedies: Does The State Help Those Who Help Themselves, Robert G. Edinger

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Transactions Subject To Gift Tax, Douglas A. Kahn, Earl M. Colson

Articles

The gift tax is imposed on the "transfer of property by gift." The term gift is not expressly defined either in the Code or in the Treasury Regulations. However, section 2512(b), dealing with the valuation of gifts, states that "where property is transferred for less than an adequate and full consideration in money or money's worth," the difference between the value of the property transferred and the consideration received constitutes a gift. Thus, for gift tax purposes, the determination of whether a gift was made does not turn so much on the intent of the transferor as it does on …

The Use And Legal Significance Of The Mean High Water Line In Coastal Boundary Mapping, Richard C. Ausness, Frank E. Maloney

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The effect of unplanned and ill-conceived land use development on the coastal ecology has been well documented in recent years. Recognizing the need for more effective governmental control in this area, a number of state legislatures have enacted statutes to protect the coastal environment and encourage the orderly development of coastal resources. These efforts have received the support of the federal government as well.

Determination of coastal boundaries is essential to the development of an effective coastal zone management program. In general such boundaries represent the intersection of the shore with a particular tidal elevation. However, the demarcation of coastal …

Alternative Gains Tax Treatments Of Decedents' Appreciated Capital Assets, D. Allen Grumbine

Vanderbilt Law Review

The present treatment of appreciated assets under section 1014' of the Code permits a great deal of accrued appreciation to escape the income tax. While decedents pay a greater estate tax because asset appreciation swells their estates, they pay no gains tax at death on this accrued appreciation. Moreover, the recipients of the decedent's property generally take a stepped-up basis for the property equal to its fair market value at the time of death. A great deal of criticism has been leveled at this system, and numerous proposals have been made for remedying the situation: imposition of a capital gains …

Environmental Control: Guide Or Roadblock To Land Development - A Symposium - Introduction, Donald W. Dowd

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

The Epa's Position: A Rational Approach To Land Development, Daniel J. Snyder Iii

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

A General Overview Of The Conflicting Interests Involved In Land Development And Environmental Control, John M. Hyson

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Does Petaluma Lie At The End Of The Road From Ramapo, R. Marlin Smith

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Environmental Planning - A Legal Guide To Development In Pennsylvania, William M. Eichbaum Jr.

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

A Reassessment Of The Legal Bases Of Zoning, John E. Donaldson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Treasury Regulations Section 1.165-3(B)(2): Lessor Deduction For Demolition Loss

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Condemnation Proceedings By Eminent Domain Upon A Possibility Of Reverter Or Power Of Termination, Robert A. Kargen

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Optimizing Land Title Assurance Systems, Dale A. Whitman

Faculty Publications

There is little unanimity of viewpoint concerning the complex and controversial subject of real estate settlement costs. The diverse interests and pressure groups seem to agree, however, that the public land title records of most jurisdictions are disarrayed, complicated, and inefficiently organized. This observation has been made with such frequency and conviction that it appears beyond dispute, and it will not be contested here.

Variable Rental Provisions In Long Term Ground Leases, Neil S. Hecht

Faculty Scholarship

Rockefeller Plaza, Madison Square Garden, the Pan Am Building, the Waldorf-Astoria, the New York Hilton, the Washbridge apartment development, and numerous cooperative residential, and office buildings are modem monuments to the vitality, flexibility, and utility of the long term ground lease. The long term ground lease is primarily an urban financing and investment vehicle that enables a lessor to convey land or air rights to a lessee who undertakes to develop the property through new construction or substantial improvements. As such, this device comprises relationships that embrace the criteria of time and function. In terms of time, common usage in …

The Pennsylvania Project - A Practical Analysis Of The Pennsylvania Rent Withholding Act, David F. Girard-Dicarlo, James S. Green, Alan J. Hoffman, William F. Holsten

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Housing Codes And The Prevention Of Urban Blight - Administrative And Enforcement Problems And Proposals, Stephen J. Polaha

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

The Question Of Compensation: A Third World Perspective, Norman Girvan

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The question of compensation for expropriated property takes us, in many respects, to the heart of the relationship between the developed capitalist countries and the Third World. On no other subject is the gulf between the two--in interests, perspectives and position--potentially so great, nor so pregnant with passionate and violent conflict. The rules of international law, the principles of international economics and the science of international politics can help clarify the issues involved and provide arguments for the claims of contending parties. But they cannot yield solutions which are "neutral" or are free of value judgments and philosophical assumptions which …

Housing Market Operations And The Pennsylvania Rent Withholding Act - An Economic Analysis, Joseph R. Buckley, Gary N. Conley

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.