PART NINE
REAL PROPERTY
Teaching Suggestions
1. Suggest the students list the property they own and classify it as real or personal.
2. See if a student will bring in a lease under which real property is rented. Discuss the rights and
Group Projects
1. Obtain forms for the various types of deeds from a stationary store. Have each group of students fill
out one type. Alternatively, have the groups make up their own deeds without a form. Discuss what
type of deeds they are and the distinguishing characteristics of each kind of deed.
CHAPTER 41
NATURE OF REAL PROPERTY
Answers to Learning Objectives
1. Real property is land and all permanent attachments to it. Trees, orchards, vineyards, and perennial
crops are real property until severed. The person through whose land the river runs owns the bed of
a non-navigable river. If the river forms the boundary line, the owner on each side owns the land to
the middle of the riverbed. The owner of land adjoining a navigable river owns the land to the low–
4. Only real property can be acquired by accretion and by adverse possession.
Lesson Outline
1. Real property consists of land, timber, minerals under the soil, buildings, and all permanent
attachments to the land, such as fences, walls, and other man-made property.
a. Trees, orchards, vineyards, and perennial crops, such as clovers, grasses, and others, that are
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2. More than one person can own property. Common ways include:
a. A tenancy in common which allows each owner to determine who gets the interest upon death.
3. An estate in fee simple is the largest and most complete right that one may possess in property.
4. A life estate is the right to use property for life. The owner is called a life tenant. At the death of the
life tenant, title passes as directed by the original owner.
5. An easement is an interest in land, such as a right-of-way across another’s land or the use of
another’s driveway. A license is a right to perform certain acts on the land, but not to stay in
possession.
Comments on Cases
(p. 498) Because the fixture (the house) had become part of the land, Patel would have had to
donate an interest in the entire property (house and land) to receive the charitable
deduction. Patel v. CIR, 138 TC No. 23 (U.S. Tax Ct.)
(p. 500) Since the judgment creditors had obtained two separate judgments in separate courts (one was a
federal court and the other a state court) there was no way joint liability could be imposed. The
fact that identical judgment creditors were involved did not make the liability of Charles and
Eleanor joint. Rogers v. Rogers, 512 S.E.2d 821 (Va.)
158
(p. 504) The fact that there was a fence on Buszkiewicz’ property gave her and her predecessors in title
notice of the extent of the adverse claim. DiFranco’s repair of the fence clearly made his
possession of the strip of land open and notorious. Buszkiewicz v. DiFranco, 746 N.E.2d 712
(Ohio Ct. App.)
Answers to Questions
(Page 504)
1. Examples include land, the actual soil, all permanent attachments to the land, including fences,
walls, timber, buildings, minerals under the soil and waters on it.
2. Normally trees growing on the land, orchards, vineyards, and perennial crops, such as clovers,
grasses and others not planted annually and cultivated, are classified as real property until severed
from the land.
5. A tenant in common does not own a specific portion of the land; each of the tenants in common
owns an undivided fractional share of the property. Each has an interest in the entire property, but
only to the extent of his or her percentage interest.
6. A person who owns property in a joint tenancy does not have the power to determine who owns the
property at death because the remaining joint owner or owners automatically own the entire
property.
7. In a community property state, no specific language or action is required for a married couple’s
property acquired during the marriage to be considered community property. Property acquired by
either spouse during the marriage is presumed to be community property absent specific agreement
Answers to Case Problems
(Page 505)
1. Mulle owns the entire driveway and the entire barn. The court found that the original family
relationship did not defeat the requirement of hostile possession. “Hostile” has come to be a term of
art, that does not necessarily require ill will, animosity or bad faith. To be hostile, possession must
be without permission, license or consent. Mulle v. McCauley, 927 A.2d 921 (Conn. App. Ct.)
2. Not here. The court affirmed that money placed by one spouse in a joint bank account held in the
names of both spouses is owned by each spouse as a tenant by the entirety. Once the property
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was not previously subject to expansion or limit, the state must obtain its easement through
the legal process, including compensation for land taken. Severance v. Patterson, 485
F.Supp.2d 793 (S.D. Tex.)
4. The machinery was part of the real estate. The court said it clearly appeared from an inspection of
the property, taking into consideration the character of the annexation, the nature and the adaptation
of the article annexed to the uses and purposes to which that part of the building was appropriated
at the time of annexation, and the relation of the party making it to the property, that a permanent
accession to the freehold was intended by the annexation of the article. ATC Partnership v. Town
of Windham, 845 A2d 389 (Conn.)