Exam 47: Personal Property and Bailment

Property that is permanently affixed to the land is called a fixture.

Scott was going out of town on a business trip.He lived in a bad neighborhood,so he wanted to leave his car in his friend Lori's driveway for safekeeping.Lori agreed to allow Scott to do this for no charge.Scott gave Lori the keys in case the car had to be moved.While Scott was away,the car was stolen through no fault of Lori's.Scott now sues Lori for the value of his car.What result?

An ordinary bailment occurs when the bailee is requested to care for the bailor's property as a favor.

All property can be classified as either real or personal.

Estray statutes provide that finders of lost property will always eventually acquire title to it.

Kathy needs to drive to a city some distance away.Kathy's car is in for repairs,so Kathy borrows Gloria's car at no charge.While Kathy is driving on the highway,one of the tires comes off the car,Kathy crashes,and is seriously injured.Gloria did not know of the defect,but a reasonable inspection would have indicated that a repair was needed.Kathy sues Gloria.In this situation:

If bailed property is destroyed while in the possession of the bailee,the bailee is presumed to be liable.

What is the purpose of estray statutes? If you could write the perfect estray statute,what provisions would you include regarding the waiting period,duties of the state and finder,and the division of property between the state and the finder,and so forth.

Dean is preparing to go into surgery.He tells his friend,Jerry,"You have been such a good friend to me all of my life.I want you to take this ring and keep it if anything should happen to me in surgery." Jerry is uncomfortable and reluctant to accept the ring.Dean insists.Dean does well in surgery,and subsequently asks Jerry to return the ring.Must he?

Martha is eating at the China Groves restaurant.She finishes and departs,leaving her purse at the table.An employee of the restaurant,Jack,finds the purse and notifies the owner of the restaurant.Going in order from superior to inferior rights,who has the best rights for the purse?

A gift "causa mortis" can be revoked by the donor at any time prior to death.

A customer goes into a restaurant and sits down at a table where she finds a Wyoming state road map and four unused Jackson Hole lift tickets paper clipped to the map sitting on the table.This is most likely:

John lives on the oceanfront in California.During a heavy rainstorm,there was a mudslide on his neighbor's land that spilled onto John's land,actually extending John's land out into the ocean about 20 yards.The neighbor wants to remove this mud and replace it.Can he do so?

Acquiring property by capture is much less important today than it was in the early days of the United States.

An airline ticket for travel to Honolulu and back is what kind of property?

Which of the following is not one of a common carrier's traditional exceptions to liability for goods in its possession?

The mere giving of a key to where personal property is kept is insufficient to satisfy the delivery requirement to call it a gift.

A college's student body includes a large number of commuter students.This college has lockers that are available for student use.Each locker has a combination lock.When a student is assigned a locker,the combination of the lock is given to the student.There are more lockers available than there are students who desire one.In addition,the record keeping of locker assignments was incomplete.Once a student is assigned a locker,the student generally keeps that locker until the student leaves the college.Because there is no separate lock to turn in,many students simply clean out their lockers when they leave,others do not even do this.It is also not possible to determine which lockers are currently being used by looking at them,contrary to the situation if there were separate removable locks.All this led to a situation where the college had no idea which lockers were currently occupied and in use and which lockers simply contained items left behind by former students.To remedy this situation,the college notified all students that all items had to be removed from the lockers within one week following the end of spring semester.At that point,all items left in the lockers would be discarded.Thereafter,anyone desiring a locker would be assigned one under a new assignment and record-keeping system.On the designated day when any remaining locker contents were to be removed,several employees opened the lockers and emptied the contents onto the floor.There were many items left in the lockers,mostly trash such as old lunch bags,notebooks,a few textbooks,and miscellaneous junk.The employees simply piled the items on the floor and were using large push brooms to sweep up the trash to place it in a dumpster.A couple of employees had salvaged some newer-looking textbooks hoping they could be sold back to the bookstore.Frank was sweeping this trash when for no particular reason he decided to pick up one of the many small paper bags from among the trash and look inside it.To his surprise,he discovered about $10,000 in cash,all $100 bills.The college has demanded that Frank turn the money over to the college.Frank claims that the money is his.There is some evidence that the money is related to illegal drug sales.Discuss the issues that would arise in determining who would get the money.

When a bailment terminates,the bailee is legally obligated to do as the bailor directs with the property.

A warehouse is liable only for loss or damage to bailed property caused by its own negligence.