2008 DAILY DEVELOPMENT FILES
JANUARY
01/11 Reliving your life when your client turns on you!!!
01/14 Editor now turns on closers and title examiners - should privity limitations be preserved?
01/15 New case on title insurer liability to relying plaintiffs not in privity
01/17 Can sophisticated parties waive damages claims for ANY breach of lease - leaving only equitable remedies and arbitration? Any???
01/18 Letter of Credit Guarantee may not qualify for contribution against personal guarantors - draft around it!!!
01/22 purposes of registered title, knowledge of line and poles on land does not constitute "actual knowledge" to destroy "good faith" of purchaser relying on certificate to show no easement
01/24 Although grantor wouldn't have given deed had he known it was irrevocable by law, the delivery is still good.
01/25 "No business" rule bars big, licensed neighborhood child care, but not small, unlicensed ones
01/28 What must condemnor do to "negotiate in good faith?"
FEBRUARY
02/01 Can you challenge ONLY the land appraisal part of a tax appraisal of an improved parcel?
02/05 Do water appropriation rights obtained by lessee revert to lessor at lease end?
02/06 Can lessee of service station, terminated on account of pending condemnation, share in condemnation award under the Fifth Amendment? How 'bout under Petroleum Marketing Practices Act?
02/08 Antitrust issues when tenants "go dark aggressively"
02/09 DIRT's first oil and gas lease interpretation
02/11 Six years of planted trees can terminate area of easement where they're planted.
02/12 Latest RLUIPA conundrum: mixing temples and taverns
APRIL
04/01 May Court Constitutionally construe an "Act of God" clause, and what happens if it can't?
JUNE
06/30 Tenant preserves parking rights despite "changed circumstances" argument based on modern shopping center design.
JULY
07/01 Can landowners collect "stigma" damages when they have suffered no loss of use or physical damage?
07/02 Joint Tenancy Severance Gets Easier and Easier.
07/03 Can one insure oneself against punitive damages
07/07 Tenant's liquidated damages remedy for breach of exclusive use
07/08 Equitable servitude binds with notice, even though not part of deed or common plan
07/09 Stealing the house from the foreclosure threatened owner_ No harm, no foul
07/10 Landowner-friendlier approach to delinquent taxpayer notice issue from New Mexico court
07/11 Lender may cancel foreclosure even after sale has occurred (but prior to court confirmation) in order to facilitate short sale by borrower
07/14 Failure to index properly eminent domain taking costs town its property after two decades
07/15 Executed Licenses The real deal
07/16 Good news and bad news for brokers on misrepresentation issue
07/17 If Developer jumps maintenance fee, can buyer rescind
07/18 The developing trend foreclosing mortgagees must work harder to prove ownership of debt - affidavit of ownership maybe not sufficient
07/21 Is presence of sex offender next door a breach of habitability
07/22 Condemning authority loses (thirty years later) in curious title case
07/23 Dramatically lower sale price, due to trustee's error, valid in anti-deficiency situation
07/24 Highway lights kill crops - a taking YESS!!!
07/25 Breach of contract of sale by vendor maybe a violation of a state Unfair Practices Act
07/28 When your contracted environmental clean up specialist in fact spills more gunk - are you an operator
07/29 Conflict between statutory and lease renewal-termination language
07/30 Supreme rule on transfer taxes and bktcy reorgs
07/31 Easy for buyer to be seen as waiving financing contingency
AUGUST
08/01 Another refinancing lender scores subrogation - it's getting easier!
08/04 Lender gets a break on reading of satisfaction statute
08/05 Perpetuities Rule undoes corporate developer on buy back right
08/06 Is parking of commercial vehicles in the driveway a violation of no business subdivision restriction
08/07 Mineral lessor's nuisance damages for lessee's contamination of lessor's estate - permanent damages concept abandoned
08/08 Lender's duty to catch foreclosure rescue scam artists
08/11 Bankruptcy won't permit cure post statutory redemption
08/12 Georgia decides creation of mortgage by one joint tenant is not a severance
08/13 Adding square footage to a preexisting nonconforming use
08/14 Even though broker unlicensed, seller pays commission when attempting to take advantage
08/15 Can long term take out lender to homebuyer be subrogated to construction lender to construction lender
08/18 Can same brokerage, acting as buyer's broker, submit offers from two different buyers
08/19 Does priority for modifications clause permit future advance
08/20 If you want to rely on financing condition - STOP!!!
08/21 Secondary market purchaser may have duty to prevent predatory lending by its seller-mortgage brokers
08/22 Does bankruptcy mootness doctrine preclude objections to free and clear sale Maybe not
08/25 The problem of uniform zoning requirements and development agreements
08/26 Two Eminent Domain Access Cases Worth Studying
08/27 City can deny building permit, even with validly zoned project, if it concludes that project is not feasible
08/28 Subsequent purchasers on notice of judicial foreclosure file as to otherwise unrecorded information
08/29 RV park as a property tax exempt activity Why not
SEPTEMBER
09/02 When the Government takes an easement to excavate, can it reuse the dirt
09/03 When are diminution in value damages not enough to compensate for nuisance-trespass
09/04 You used to be able to see the water from here_ _ _ Is government liable for obstructing water view
09/05 If a zoning applicant lies in prior application, can zoning board take this into account in subsequent variance proceedings
09/08 Landlord's acquiescence in defaults through one renewal prevent raising defaults to block later renewal, despite anti-waiver clause
09/09 If you have a building permit, can you avoid spite fence restrictions
09/10 Does broker have duty to disclose to other side client's financial problems that might prevent closing (Revisited)
09/11 Transfer of adversely possessed property valid vs_ BFP's
09/12 Does common enemy doctrine permit diversion of wet area
09/15 Real estate sale agreement becomes unenforceable free option_ Oops!!
09/16 Partition lawsuit brought by one joint tenant does not, upon filing, create a severance, and, upon death before final decision in the partition suit, death by one joint tenant creates title in the other and the partition
09/17 Cal_ court finds landlord has duty to inspect interior of premises to protect against personal injuries while a writ of possession is pending and tenant remains in control
09/18 Important Kansas ruling bites MERS on its nominee status_ No right to be named in foreclosure by senior of the MERS held interest
09/19 Can you both adversely possess and permit the true owner use of the land
09/22 Title by prescription - a different concept from adverse possession - gets different disability rule
OCTOBER
10/07 Excluding Terrorism as a covered risk under Fire and Extended Coverage policy is against public policy in New York
10/08 Buyer's specific performance case morphs into damages action with lots of twists
10/09 Recharacterization foils Home Foreclosure Rescue Scheme
10/10 A seal is a mammal that swims, but why should it make a difference in real estate deals
10/13 Can a disappointed purchaser challenge a fiduciary sale approved by probate court
10/14 If you don't obtain the cancellation of a refinanced HELOC, it stays open, to your peril
10/15 Are mechanic's liens subject to lis pendens notice in foreclosure of senior mortgage where their priority predates date of foreclosure notice, but not the mortgage itself
10/16 Federal courts (including bankruptcy) may not retry issues that have been resolved in state court
10/17 Overlaps onto neighboring property constitute insured defects in marketability when survey clause is deleted__EML
10/21 Renewal rent cap based upon another named tenant or successors becomes irrelevant when named tenant goes defunct and space is subdivided
10/22 Does a sale to a family member for less than fair value trigger a refusal right
10/23 Easement for telephone poles can grow into right to install wireless communications equipment
10/24 Italian Cowboy Creamed in Court disclaimer and ratification problems undo fraud claim
10/27 Limiting frustrated buyer's claims when trustee breaches auction contract
10/28 Indemnification, suretyship, subrogation - nothing works for guarantors of principle lease to get at assigns
10/29 Untimely lease renewal will court require very good excuse, even where dire economic loss will result
10/30 Halloween Mechanics Lien for Disposing of Gooey Remains of Corpse_EML
NOVEMBER
`
11/03 Timber rights reserved in grantor, heirs and assigns is only a temporary right, ending after a reasonable period
11/04 Waiving the Landlord's anti-waiver language on lease assignments
11/05 What standard should be used by courts in considering confirmation of a judicial foreclosure sale
11/06 Purchaser of 22 year old tax redemption right is BFP with regard to efforts to foreclose such right if foreclosing party didn't record notices of foreclosure
11/07 Tax Appraisal Blues entreprenurial profit and functional obsolescence both losing issues for landowner
11/10 Virginia takes Statute of Frauds seriously - seller can contract with another if details of first deal not resolved in writing
11/11 Big fraud, but no subrogation_ A little lesson in equity
11/12 Rerouting traffic may have the same effect on landowner as restricting access, but it's not inverse condemnation
11/13 Class actions for mortgagee's breach of prompt discharge statutes may add up
11/14 Do borrower's foreclosure defenses survive bankrupt lender's 363 free and clear sale of mortgage assets