Property, Fall 2015, Section 3 (Krier)

Assignments for the Term

(All references are to the required text)
Each horizontal line with page numbers is an individual assignment. Each individual
assignment will usually, but hardly always, take about one class session; some will take a little
more or a little less. It is best to stay a bit ahead to make sure you are prepared, but not so far
ahead that you cant remember back to whats being discussed.
You should spend at least as much time thinking about the materials (including the
assigned Notes, Questions, and Problems in the book) as you do reading them. Kriers
experience is that students spend way too much time reading assignments and way too little time
thinking about them.
The Notes, Questions, and Problems in the book often cite published material, but there
is no expectation that you read the referenced material; its there if you want to read it. The
principal idea behind the Notes, Questions, and Problems is to identify and think about the issues
raised.
Introductory Concepts and Doctrines (Chs 1 and 2)
Acquisition of Property by Capture (Ch 1)
18-26
26-40 (probably will take more than one day)
40-56
Acquisition by Creation (Ch 1)
56-64; read but no class discussion 64-65, 76-77, 83-84
Acquisition by Find (Ch 2)
125-135
135-144
The Estate System (Chs 3-4)
Possessory Estates and Future Interests (Chs 3-4)
We will do Chapters 3 and 4 as follows: I will lecture; you will read the assigned pages (see
below) in preparation, listen carefully, and take notes. As you read, you can also consult the
STUDY AID that I will send to you. We will try to cover everything in 6 sessions. I suggest that
as we proceed you try to avoid wondering about why things are as I say they are. If you do that
your mind will go astray and you will miss things. I will explain to you the whys and wherefores
of every single thing I want you to know.
You will not be able to comprehend all that I am saying as I say it, and you should not try. First
you have to get the whole picture in your mind, and then, actually, you will understand it.
Meanwhile you should just take it down, and after the classes at some point, better several
points, you will study what you took down and if you find gaps and ambiguities in your notes
you should consult me. If we were to proceed in a fashion such as to enable each of you to
comprehend each item we address as we address it, we would have to spend weeks and weeks.

Shortly after we finish the material there will be an objective in-class open-book (meaning
anything in writing) one-hour (or so) examination. The points you score will be added
proportionally to the total points you score on the final examination. The final examination, if it
touches on any Chapter 3-4 topics, will do so only tangentially. Essentially, when you are done
with all the foregoing, you can put the topics out of your minds until bar exams.
Why do I proceed in this fashion? Begin with the understanding that the system of estates is
unlikely (bar exams aside) to be of much use to you unless you end up with a real estate or estate
planning practice in your careers. For this reason, it appears that the American Bar Association
urges Property teachers not to spend undue time on it, and that had been my practice anyway.
What happens to complicate things, however, is that and, oddly, in part because students get so
into the material it takes a good deal of concentration to absorb the stuff. So there are tradeoffs
knowing the material is part of being a lawyer, its fun in a perverse way, but it is nevertheless
not so intellectually interesting to deserve a lot of time, but without a lot of time its hard to learn
unless you really put your mind to it. What we are doing is my resolution of the trade-offs.
Some closing words: Essentially, you will see that you are learning a language here, the
language of estates, the names for things and how they operate. Welcome to the Grays
Anatomy of law school (the reference is to the medical book Grays Anatomy, not to the TV
series Greys Anatomy). You all know how one learns a language, and how challenging it can
be given that each language has its own vocabulary, grammatical rules, tenses, idioms, cases and
declensions, and peculiarities generally. The language you will be studying is no different, save
it is simpler to learn it than it is to learn any other language.
Here is what to anticipate as you study the language of estates: words that seem to say exactly
the same thing in terms of fact often mean different things in terms of their legal consequences,
and even the most subtle alterations in wording can make a huge difference; there are things you
can accomplish by saying words on two pieces of paper instead of on one piece of paper; people
who arent yet born are sometimes treated as though they were, so long as they have been
conceived and are eventually born; people who havent even been conceived can have property
interests; it matters whether the words are you get this money if . . . or instead say you get
this money, but . . . Etc., etc., etc.
The pages you should study in Chapters 3 and 4 (sometimes we will probably cover more or less
than one assignment in a day) are:
In Chapter 3
207-215 (if you are interested in the history; otherwise ignore); 215-226, including the
three problems on 219 and problems 1-3 on 221
226, 232-234, 239-244, 244-247, 253-256, 263-265, 272-273 (Review Problemsdo on own)
In Chapter 4
275-288, 290-293 (do all the problems in the assigned pages, and I recommend you do the
Review Problems as well)
303-315
2

[Back to Chapter 2]
Acquisition by Adverse Possession (Ch 2)
144-162
162-178
178-189
Co-Ownership (Ch 5)
343-359
361-382
The Law of Landlord and Tenant (Ch. 6)
Landlord and Tenant Estates
441-450
The Lease, Selection of Tenants, and Delivery of Possession
450-465
Subleases and Assignments
465-472
473-482
Defaulting Tenants
482-504
Tenants Rights and Remedies
504-515
515-526, 528-530 (no discussion of the latter pages), 531-540
Land-Use Regulation, Private and Public (Chapters 10-12)
Servitudes (Ch 10)
Introduction, and Creation of Easements
809-819
820-847
Assignability, Scope, and Termination of Easements
856-875, 885-886 (and read 887-892, no class discussion of this latter material)
Covenants and Equitable Servitudes Introduction
892-903
Creation
903-909, 916-921
Termination
927-936
Common Interest Communities
937-954 (read quickly; probably little or no class discussion)
[Assignments for Chapters 11 and 12 will be determined later, when we see how much time we
have left before the end of the term.]