Property Law Flashcards

A city rezones a parcel, eliminating nearly all economically viable use of the land. Under Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, what is the likely constitutional result?

Answer: A per se regulatory taking requiring compensation unless background principles bar the use

A regulation depriving land of all economically beneficial use is a categorical taking unless the restriction inheres in background principles of state property law.

A buyer gives a purchase-money mortgage to the seller and later gives a second mortgage to a bank. At foreclosure of the first mortgage, sale proceeds exceed the first debt. Who is paid from the surplus first?

Answer: The junior bank mortgagee, before the mortgagor

Foreclosure surplus is distributed to junior lienholders in order of priority before any remainder goes to the mortgagor.

An easement holder begins using a residential access easement to run commercial truck traffic to a new business on the dominant estate. The servient owner objects. What is the servient owner's best argument?

Answer: The changed use exceeds the scope of the easement

An easement holder may not unreasonably increase the burden on the servient estate beyond the scope contemplated at creation.

A decedent dies intestate in Kentucky, survived by a spouse and two children. Under Kentucky's dower/curtesy and descent statutes, what does the surviving spouse generally take in the decedent's surplus real estate?

Answer: A one-half interest in the surplus real estate

Kentucky's dower and curtesy statute gives the surviving spouse one-half of the decedent's surplus real property, with descendants taking the rest.

A landowner grants a utility company the right to run power lines across his land, personal to the company and unconnected to any dominant parcel. What interest was created?

Answer: An easement in gross

An easement benefiting a person or entity rather than a dominant parcel is an easement in gross, and commercial ones are transferable.

A fixture dispute arises when a commercial tenant seeks to remove specialized ovens it bolted to the floor of a leased bakery before the lease ends. What is the likely result?

Answer: The tenant may remove them as trade fixtures if removal occurs before the lease ends and damage is repaired

Trade fixtures installed for a tenant's business are removable before the tenancy ends if the tenant repairs any resulting damage.

A buyer under an installment land contract defaults after paying 80 percent of the price. The contract declares all payments forfeited and title retained by the seller. How are many modern courts likely to treat this arrangement?

Answer: As an equitable mortgage requiring foreclosure or restitution rather than strict forfeiture

Modern courts increasingly treat installment land contracts like mortgages, protecting a defaulting buyer with substantial equity from harsh forfeiture.