Property Law Flashcards
7 cards from real IN BAR practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Property Law flashcards as text
O conveys "to A for life, then to A's children who reach 21." A has one child, X, age 5, at the conveyance. What interest do A's children hold?
Answer: A contingent remainder
Because no child has yet satisfied the condition precedent of reaching 21, the remainder is contingent.
A farmer grants a utility company the right to run power lines across his field. The grant benefits the company itself rather than any parcel of land. How is this interest classified?
Answer: An easement in gross
An easement that benefits a person or entity rather than a dominant parcel is an easement in gross.
A seller fails to disclose a known, hidden termite infestation to a residential buyer who could not reasonably discover it. In most jurisdictions today, what is the seller's exposure?
Answer: Liability for fraudulent concealment or nondisclosure of a known latent material defect
Most jurisdictions require sellers of residential property to disclose known latent material defects not reasonably discoverable by the buyer.
A landowner has used a path across a neighbor's land openly, continuously, and without permission for the full prescriptive period. What interest has the landowner acquired?
Answer: A prescriptive easement
Adverse use, as opposed to adverse possession, ripens into a prescriptive easement rather than title.
In Indiana, to be entitled to record, a deed generally must be signed by the grantor and satisfy what additional formality?
Answer: Acknowledgment before a notary or other authorized officer
Indiana requires a conveyance to be acknowledged (proven) before an authorized officer for the instrument to be recorded.
A commercial tenant installs bolted-down display counters for its store. Absent contrary agreement, may the tenant remove them at the end of the lease?
Answer: Yes, trade fixtures may be removed before the lease ends if removal causes no substantial damage
Under the trade fixtures doctrine, a commercial tenant may remove business-related fixtures before the tenancy ends if the premises can be restored.
A city rezones a parcel, eliminating all economically beneficial use of the land, and no background principles of state law prohibit the owner's intended use. Under Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, what result?
Answer: A per se taking requiring just compensation
A regulation depriving land of all economically beneficial use is a categorical taking unless the restriction inheres in background principles of property or nuisance law.