Property Law and Real Estate Commons^™

Double Diamond V. Second Jud. Dist. Ct., 131 Nev. Adv. Op. 57 (July 30, 2015), Janine Lee

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

NRS 116.3105(2) permits homeowners associations to terminate contracts at any time if the declarant did not enter into the contract in good faith or if the contract was unconscionable to the units’ owners at the time of contract formation.[1] The statute requires that an association provide at least 90 days notice of termination under this provision. The 90-day notice period in NRS 116.3105(2) does not operate as a statute of limitations nor does it shift the burden to a notice recipient to file an action. Instead, NRS 11.190 is applicable, resulting in either a four-year or six-year statute of …

Forfeiture Of Residential Land Contracts In Ohio: The Need For Further Reform Of A Reform Statute, James Geoffrey Durham

Akron Law Review

The purpose of this article is to examine the problems created by Chapter 5313, Installment Land Contracts (the "Act"). In order to do that, the article begins with a background section which more fully describes the type of contractual arrangement under discussion, why people use land contracts, and the economic factors in the current Ohio real estate market which have caused an increase in the use of land contracts and may cause mounting problems with Ohio's land contract statute. The second section describes the common law treatment of land contract defaults and the positions taken by states other than Ohio. …

The Landlord's Liability To His Tenants For Injuries Criminally Inflicted By Third Persons, Marvin M. Moore

Akron Law Review

Until approximately fifteen years ago a landlord was never held civilly liable to his tenants for injuries inflicted by the criminal acts of third persons, regardless of the deficiency of the security measures provided by the landlord.' The landlord was protected from tenant lawsuits by three factors: The historical concept of a lease, certain tort theories of a legalistic nature, and some policy concerns having significant influence upon the courts. In recent years the courts have begun holding landlords liable in some circumstances for criminally-induced injuries sustained by their tenants. The following discussion will examine the reasons for the landlord's …

The Legal Form Of Liberalism: A Study Of Riparian And Nuisance Law In Nineteenth Century Ohio, E. P. Krauss

Akron Law Review

This essay tests the foregoing interpretation by examining the nineteenth century Ohio decisions in the fields of riparian and nuisance law. This data, as shall be shown, tends to confirm the conclusions of earlier scholarship. In the third and fourth parts of this essay two decisions, one from the very beginning of the period under study," and one from near the end, will be considered. These two decisions help identify the developmental context within which judicial law-making passed from a creative to an elaborative phase by illustrating judicial attitudes toward protecting the public interest in 1831 and again in 1892.

Section 280a: Vacation Home And Rental Property, Craig Teller

Akron Law Review

In addition to the personal and business use of a unit, the rules under Internal Revenue Code Section 280A ("280A") also cover situations such as time-sharing arrangements, rental pools, shared equity financing deals and office-at-home deductions. Though 280A applies to individuals, partnerships, trusts, estates, and S Corporations, this comment assumes the "taxpayer" to be an individual taxpayer. This author will first analyze 280A to provide general guidance in the rental of a unit. After the overall analysis, the author will focus on the following rental situations:

1. Analysis of Personal Use.
2. Analysis of Rental Use.
3. Further Analysis of Allocating Rental & …

Aesthetics In Ohio Land Use Law: Preserving Beauty In The Parlor And Keeping Pigs In The Barnyard, Edward H. Ziegler Jr.

Akron Law Review

Traditional zoning restrictions on residential use, lots, and yards invariably involved what Ohio lawyer Alfred Bettman, an early supporter of urban planning, once described as an official regard for "the look of things." These traditional zoning controls though were constitutionally sanctioned on the nuisance analogy basis that such restrictions promoted the orderly development of healthy, safe and quiet residential neighborhoods. Aesthetic values generally were held to be beyond the scope of police power regulation.' In 1930, Judge Cardozo could state: "One of the unsettled questions of the law is the extent to which the concept of nuisance may be enlarged …

A Professional Degree Is Not Marital Property Upon Divorce: Stevens V. Stevens, Katherine Scheid

Akron Law Review

This Note first analyzes the Stevens court's opinion and concludes that it fails to give sufficient direction on how to determine the amount of the alimony award in order to sufficiently compensate the supporting spouse. Second, this Note explores the ways in which courts in other jurisdictions have attempted to compensate the supporting spouse. Finally, this Note proposes two alternative methods of valuing the supporting spouse's contribution. One method applies if the court, as in Stevens v. Stevens, holds that contribution toward a technical degree is not divisible marital property but should be considered when awarding alimony. The second …

Realtor As "Superbroker": Great Expectations Unrealized?, Rene Sacasa, Don Wiesner

Akron Law Review

This article explores the public policy and expectation issues surrounding the qualifications and liabilities of realtors. It is a premise of this article that two phenomena, the expectation that the realtor is a "superbroker" and the application of the law of fiduciaries, are making the practice unstaffable. This collection of society's needs and biases, it is offered, naturally followed land as a product and its transfer.

First Contact: Establishing Jurisdiction Over Activities In Outer Space, Brian Abrams

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Financing America's Public Infrastructure: Issues For Local Governments, Shelley C. Vazmina

Akron Law Review

This comment examines the role state and local government financing has played in America's infrastructure crisis. This comment also recognizes that infrastructure financing issues in declining cities differ from infrastructure issues due to population expansion.

Part I is particularly relevant to declining cities. It reviews traditional methods by which state and local government obtain operating revenues, and the use of these revenues for infrastructure. It discusses trends and developments which have made traditional financing schemes less useful for infrastructure.

Part II applies in large part to growing cities. Growth creates demand for new infrastructure while straining existing core infrastructure. Alternative …

Improving The Image And Legal Status Of The Burial Services Industry, Marvin M. Moore

Akron Law Review

The purpose of this article is to examine the reasons advanced for excluding funeral parlors and graveyards from predominantly residential neighborhoods, the legal devices most commonly employed to accomplish such exclusion, and the propriety of using the police powers of the state to bar a land use that may not always threaten to thwart any of the recognized aims that the police powers are intended to promote. Finally, the article will recommend some practical steps that operators of mortuaries and cemeteries might take in order to gain more public acceptance. To the extent that the law merely reflects the values, …

Private Property, The Takings Clause And The Pursuit Of Market Gain, Charles H. Clarke

Akron Law Review

This Article proposes a fair return model for the takings clause. This conception of the clause has been an operating principle of welfare capitalism for decades. The Article rejects the model of laissez faire capitalism that once dominated the landscape of the nation's constitutional system and may come back again.

Preventing Franchise Flight: Could Cleveland Have Kept The Browns By Exercising Its Eminent Domain Power?, Steven R. Hobson Ii

Akron Law Review

The purpose of this Comment is to analyze whether Ohio law would allow for such a taking, and to determine if such action would have solved the problem of keeping the Browns in Cleveland. In analyzing this issue and focusing on the difficulties that such a taking would create, it will be demonstrated that this taking probably cannot be achieved successfully, and that some congressional intervention is needed to rectify the franchise relocation problem.

Scalia, Property, And Dolan V. Tigard: The Emergence Of A Post-Carolene Products Jurisprudence, David Schultz

Akron Law Review

This Article proposes an analysis of Scalia's views on property rights and shows how the Justice has been important to, if not the leader in, the current rethinking of takings and land use jurisprudence." Also, this Article will engage in a more comprehensive reevaluation of the jurisprudence of the Carolene Products Era that is transpiring both off and on the Court. While previous works have examined Rehnquist's and his Court's views on property, as well as Scalia's views on expressive freedoms criminal due process, and church/state issues, there is no comprehensive discussion addressing Scalia's views on property rights. To accomplish …

The Intention Of The Settlor Under The Uniform Trust Code: Whose Property Is It, Anyway?, Alan Newman

Akron Law Review

Given the increasingly common use of perpetual and other longterm trusts, the pace of change and complexity in our society now and in the foreseeable future, and our sensibilities with respect to private property rights and dead hand control, the UTC appears to have struck a reasonable balance between respecting the settlor’s intent and accommodating the interests of beneficiaries. Undoubtedly, some will find it to have gone too far in favor of trust beneficiaries, while others will find it not to have gone far enough. In any case, this centuries old debate, like the new perpetual trusts that have contributed …

Profiles - Ucan’S New Campus Construction Project, Chicago, Illinois, James Hagy, Sahar Nikanjam

Rooftops Project

Funding and constructing a new $41 million facility may be a once-in-a-generation, if ever, event, for many social service not-for-profits. Choosing a site that invests directly in the neighborhood and the people served can have ripple effects far beyond the central purpose of the delivery of services the buildings are designed to support. The Rooftops Project’s Sahar Nikanjam and Professor James Hagy walked the site of UCAN’s new campus construction under way in the Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago.

Bankruptcy Weapons To Terminate A Zombie Mortgage, Andrea Boyack, Robert Berger

Faculty Publications

Bankruptcy’s strongest public policy is the possibility of a fresh start for a borrower – a way for a debtor to free himself from the burdens of pre-petition obligations and re-commence his or her financial life. A debtor can surrender property burdened by a lien to the lien-holder and thereby release him or herself from ongoing obligations under the loan. This is true even in cases where the collateral’s value is less than the secured loan – for in bankruptcy, a lender’s secured claim is limited to the value of its lien. In chapter 13, a debtor who elects to …

Summary Of Dep't Of Taxation V. Kawahara., 131 Nev. Adv. Op. 42 (June 25, 2015), Janine Lee

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

A recorded tax lien has the effect of a judgment lien under NRS 360.473(2) and therefore, cannot have the effect or priority of a mortgage lien. The common law rule of “first in time, first in right” applies to lien priority when a valid deed of trust is attached to a property, thus creating a security interest, prior to the recording of a tax lien; even if not recorded until after the tax lien.

How To Kill A Zombie: Strategies For Dealing With The Aftermath Of The Foreclosure Crisis, Judith Fox

Journal Articles

The foreclosure crisis which began in 2008 is old news; or is it? A lot of attention has been paid to the plight of homeowners struggling to save their homes from foreclosure. Legislative and regulatory changes have made it easier for homeowners to navigate the loss mitigation process. A significant number of people, however, did not try to save their homes. In fact, some actively tried unsuccessfully to give the homes back to their lender. These abandoned homes and abandoned foreclosures have become zombie mortgages. This is the legacy of this crisis.

The existence of these homes is well documented …

Sustaining Neighborhoods Of Choice: From Land Bank(Ing) To Land Trust(Ing), James J. Kelly Jr.

Journal Articles

This essay is based on my closing presentation at the Washburn Law Journal's 2015 symposium entitled “The Future of Housing -- Equity, Stability and Sustainability.” It explores how land banks and land trusts promote social goods, including socioeconomic integration, by connecting with and shielding against, respectively, market forces. Both engage in stewardship of land. Land banks take temporary ownership of vacant, abandoned properties in order to make them available for productive use. Land trusts hold land indefinitely to ensure a social purpose is met. Community land trusts hold land for a purpose that is responsive to the human environment, often …