Recently in Property Law Category

A Maryland appeals court has declared pit bulls "inherently dangerous," MSNBC reports.

The new ruling imposes strict liability onto Maryland owners whose pit bulls attack people. The decision makes it easier for victims to sue and recover against pit bull owners. The original case started when a 4-year-old Prince George's County boy was viciously mauled by a pit bull. The court's opinion applies to both pure and cross-bred pit bulls.

Though the decision only affects Maryland, the court's ruling could signal the beginning of possible statewide legislation against the animal.

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a challenge to New York City's rent control law. In doing so, the Second Circuit's 2011 decision to dismiss the case has been affirmed.

That suit was brought by James and Jeanne Harmon, owners of an apartment building that is partially subjected to the city's rent stabilization measures. They claim the NYC rent control law unconstitutionally deprives them of their property without just compensation.

They are legally required to rent the apartments at a rate 59% below market value.

The Georgia Supreme Court has ruled against a breakaway congregation of the Episcopal Church, Christ Church, deciding that the local church's property is legally owned by the national organization.

Christ Church was founded in 1733. The church co-founded the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia and joined the Episcopal Church in 1823. In 2007, the Episcopal Church affirmed its first openly gay bishop in New Hampshire. After this move, the congregation voted to sever its ties to the national organization. They became affiliated with an Anglican diocese in Uganda.

But, Christ Church refused to give up the buildings and property where their church was located.

Massachusetts foreclosure buyers best beware after a just-released decision by the state's highest court.

Francis Bevilacqua purchased a foreclosure home from U.S. Bank in 2006, only to find out that he doesn't hold clear title to the property. Turns out that the bank didn't yet own the mortgage when it foreclosed on the building.

The bank therefore never legally transferred title to Bevilacqua, who must now contend with the original owner.

Massachusetts foreclosure buyers best beware after a just-released decision by the state's highest court.

Francis Bevilacqua purchased a foreclosure home from U.S. Bank in 2006, only to find out that he doesn't hold clear title to the property. Turns out that the bank didn't yet own the mortgage when it foreclosed on the building.

The bank therefore never legally transferred title to Bevilacqua, who must now contend with the original owner.

After more than a decade in the courts, discrimination cases brought by Native American and Black farmers against the USDA and the Department of the Interior are nearing an end. On November 19, the Senate voted to approve two multibillion-dollar settlements to resolve claims of discrimination and mismanagement by the federal government. Further action by the House also will be needed for final approval, and will likely take place after the Thanksgiving holiday.

The settlement will give Native American plaintiffs in the land trust lawsuit access to a $3.4 billion fund. Black farmers who have joined the lawsuit against the USDA will be part of a $1.15 billion settlement, reports The Washington Post.

The issues that brought these two groups to court were similar, but not precisely the same. The Native American plaintiffs' suit concerned the mismanagement by the government of the payments due for natural resources mined from tribal lands. That case finally settled last December.

Banking giant Wells Fargo has reached a settlement with the attorneys general of eight states over claims that its subsidiary Wachovia marketed its adjustable rate mortgages in a deceptive manner. The bank will pay a total of $24 million, and make loan modifications in the amount of $772 million under the terms of the settlement which was announced October 6.

The states' claims against Wachovia, acquired by Wells Fargo in 2009, have to do with the way the "pick-a-payment" adjustable rate mortgages were presented to consumers, reports Bloomberg. The program allowed borrowers to pick the payment option they wanted to use. However, the lowest payment option advertised by the bank often did not include the charges for monthly interest, increasing the debt load. This lead to defaults and foreclosures, according to the claims of the states involved.

A 2006 Hazelton, Pennsylvania immigration law that allowed the city to revoke business licenses for those companies that employed illegal immigrants, and fine landlords that knowingly rented to them has been struck down by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. You can read the case opinion in Lozano v. City of Hazelton on FindLaw.com.

The Philadelphia Inquirer quotes Chief Judge Theodore McKee's rationale in the Pennsylvania immigration law case:

"Federal law simply does not prohibit landlords from renting (in the ordinary course of business) to persons who lack lawful immigration status. Nor does federal law directly prohibit persons lacking lawful status from renting apartments. It is not our job to sit in judgment of whether state and local frustration about federal immigration policy is warranted. We are, however, required to intervene when states and localities directly undermine federal objectives embodied in statutes enacted by congress."

This year, daydreaming about time on a Florida beach will just not be what it used to. Not only are we haunted by the specter of the spill, but now the Supreme Court has kicked sand in the face of Florida beachfront property owners. Six homeowners petitioned the Court in a challenge to the Florida Supreme Court's decision that the government did not illegally take the property of homeowners when its beach fill-in project denied them rights to private water access.

This case began with the Florida project to repair and restore its beaches by replenishing the sand. According to a report by Reuters, the property owners in Walton County, Fl, claimed this program amounted to a "taking" of their property by the state as the filled-in beaches became state owned property, cutting off the owners' direct access to the waterline. Under the 5th amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the government may not take private property from an owner for a public purpose without just compensation.

Bob and Jane Cull of Mansfield, Texas, saw the light at the end of a long legal tunnel on March 2nd. On that day, the jury in their case against powerful home builders, Perry Homes, came back with an award in favor of the stubborn plaintiffs: $58 million. That may seem like an over-payment for a home defects case involving repairs on a house that only cost the couple $234,000 when they purchased it, but consider what they had to go through to get there.