Property Law and Real Estate Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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 …

Urban Law At Night: Night Mayors And Nighttime Urban Governance Strategies For Sustainable Urban Night Spaces And Spatiotemporal Equality, Sara Gwendolyn Ross

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This paper will explore the concept of the “night mayor” and nighttime governance structures by tracing their development, reviewing a number of examples, situating the concept within the concept of spatiotemporal equality and marginalization as well as within international guiding documents for equitable and sustainable urban development that require cities to think through their management of the night and its spaces and activities. Finally, this paper will also center the discussion on the experience of Vancouver, Canada as it begins to implement its newly adopted cultural plan for the city, begins to respond to existing challenges for the existence of …

Comparative Legal Perspectives On Cultural Land Trusts For Urban Spaces Of Culture, Community, And Art: A Tool For Counteracting Displacement, Sara Gwendolyn Ross

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

As cities redevelop and previously less desirable or marginalized portions of the city space are “retaken” by a city, areas that have provided affordable performance, rehearsal, and live/work space for the arts and culture sector are becoming increasingly less available for these uses. Focusing predominantly on the Canadian Civil Law and Common Law context with passing reference to other jurisdictions such as the US, Scotland, and the UK, this article explores techniques for managing the increased pressure on and increasingly rapid displacement of spaces of arts, culture, and community cultural wealth that is taking place in cities. To this end, …

Zoning For Families, Sara C. Bronin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

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. …

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

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

Caveat Emptor: Real Property Law’S “Get Out Of Jail Free” Card V. The Property Condition Disclosure Act, Alessandra E. Albano

Touro 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.