• Bundle of rights
• Ownership is fluid - can change
• Labor theory - owned by my efforts
• Possession theory - owned by actual possession
• Dominion and control key factors
• Possession does not equal property
• Property/possession influenced by customs (popov baseball)
• Right to possess includes right to exclude, alienate, right to use, enjoy fruits, right to destroy

• Mere pursuit is not enough
• Mortally wounding and continued pursuit is enough
• Effective trapping is possession
• Pre-posessory interest is also a factor

Lost

Mislaid

Abandoned

Treasure Trove

• Lost - UN intentionally leaving of item (wallet falls out)
  • Finder has better right than land owner
• Mislaid - Purposely placed and forgotten (purse)
  • land owner has better right to possession
• Abandoned - purposely relinquish rights to ownership
  • First finder has best title

• Immediate
• Voluntary
• Irrevocable
• Transfer
• Made gratuitously
• Without consideration
• Delivered - exchange dominion and control
• Must be Accepted
• Future promise is not a gift (if you graduate...)

• Capacity to transfer - mental as well as being actual owner
• Intent - to be immediate and irrevocable
  • Can be after delivery (keep the pen)
• Delivery - exchange dominion and control - physical or symbolic
• Donee must Accept the gift - physical acceptance does not confirm acceptance

Conversion

Replevin

Trover

• Conversion - chattel was taken without cause or permission and no longer same value - compensation in money
• Replevin - Chattel was taken without cause or permission - You want the item back, not money
• Trover - cause of action to recover property that someone else obtains wrongfully - not quite stealing

• Temporary transfer of possession for limited time for specific purpose until end of bailment
• Bailee has certain duties to return in same or better condition
• Look at totality of facts to determine if bailment relationship - parking garage example - does bailee have at least some dominion and control
• Bailment can be expressed or implied

• Human body is not property - cannot buy and sell
• Can sell self-replicating body fluids or hair
• Can gift body parts and be compensated for expenses associated with donation
• Can sell services to deliver body fluids and tissues - compensated for delivery of the fluids, not the actual fuids
• Parts and fluids can be bought and sold for health sciences education

• Trespasser becomes owner/title holder without permission of original owner
  • trespassing required
• For a statutory period of time
  • Tacking can be used for previous possessor if there was privity, reasonable connection
• Clear and convincing evidence - high standard
• Sometimes can clarify property boundries
• Can be a defense for trespassing or ejectment, or can be action to quiet a title disputes

Elements in Adverse Possession

• Needs to be typical use of true landowner
• Actual - must occupy the land
• Open and notorious - visible - can be seen (does not need to actually seen by real owner)
• Exclusive - but can have visitors
• Continuous - but not 24/7 - as actual owner would use
• Adverse and hostile - hardest to demonstrate
  • Good faith mistake OR Bad faith
  • Hostility can be objective/obvious or subjective???

Trespass is an 

• Intentional
• Unprivileged
• Intrusion 
• Onto others property

No damage required

 Mistake not a defense

Sufficiently visible and obvious to reasonable owner

True owner does not need to see, but should have

Reputation of ownership in community - what others think

Exercise dominion and control

for a uninterrupted time

In a manner customarily used by owners of that type of property

1. Not shared with other owners
2. True owner must be effectively excluded
3. May allow others to enter property just as a traditional owner

Adverse possessor must possess property against the interest of the true owner

Sometimes just the presumption of possession is non-permissive (Nome2000 v Fagerstrom)

Adverse possessor use must be non-permissive - if owner permits the use, no claim for adverse possession

1. Objective test (majority opinion) - only that adverse possessor intended to use land - state of mind does not matter - could be mistake or knowingly trespassing on land
2. Subjective intentional dispossession test (bad faith test)
3. Subjective good faith test

Some states lower number of years if adverse owner has color of title

If the title describes the land inaccurately, can be corrected with use of Adverse Possession

1. if encroachment is innocent (big requirement),
2. small interference with owner property,
3. high cost of removing structure,

courts will not order removal of structure and

1. Damages paid to actual owner for decreased value OR
2. Force sale from actual owner to encroaching owner OR
3. True owner compensates for cost of structure built and then owns structure (when entirely on land)

1. Consent, permission, or licence (can be withdrawn and required to leave within reasonable time)
2. Necessity (clear and eminent danger) 
3. Public Policy

Common carrier/innkeeper exclusion rule  

and

Amusement place exclusion rule

and General Rule for exclusion

Common carrier/innkeeper rule: have a duty to provide reasonable access and can only exclude on reasonable grounds

Amusement Place Rule (NV not NJ): have absolute and arbitrary right to exclude (card counter in casino, someone who is fat, anyone named Phil)

General Rule: if open to public for owner's interests, no right to exclude unreasonably - duty to not exclude arbitrarily