Acquisition of Property: Capture, Find and Adverse Possession: every key term you need (+ practice quiz)
25 flashcard terms for Property Topic 1, written to match the course framework. Study them here, then drill them as interactive flashcards, or test yourself with the 15-question quiz — free, no account needed.
The principle that title to an unowned resource such as a wild animal vests in the first person to reduce it to actual possession or certain control, rewarding effort and providing a clear, low-cost ownership rule.
Pierson v. Post
New York case holding that merely pursuing a fox on unowned land gives no property right; the hunter must mortally wound, trap or otherwise bring the animal under certain control before ownership attaches.
Ghen v. Rich
Whaling case enforcing a local custom that the killer of a finback whale owns it once marked with an identifying lance, showing courts may adopt industry custom where custom is essential to the trade.
Keeble v. Hickeringill
Case allowing a decoy pond owner to recover against a neighbor who fired guns to scare ducks away, protecting lawful competitive use of one's own land against malicious interference rather than the birds themselves.
Ferae Naturae
Wild animals owned by no one until captured. Possession is lost and ownership ends if the animal escapes and regains its natural liberty, unless it displays a habit of return to its captor.
Animus Revertendi
The habit of returning. A captured wild animal that regularly returns to its owner remains owned even while temporarily at large, an exception to the escape rule that would otherwise free the animal.
Constructive Possession by Landowner
The doctrine that the owner of land is treated as constructively possessing wild animals on it, so a trespassing hunter who captures game may be forced to surrender it to the landowner.
Rule of Capture for Oil and Gas
A surface owner owns fugacious minerals lawfully drawn to the surface through wells on the owner's own tract, even if the oil or gas migrated from beneath a neighbor's land, subject to conservation regulation.
Correlative Rights Doctrine
A limit on capture requiring each owner over a common pool or aquifer to take only a fair and reasonable share and to avoid waste or negligent damage to the shared reservoir.
American Reasonable Use Rule for Capturing Groundwater
The American rule allowing a landowner to pump groundwater for reasonable uses on the overlying land, rejecting the older English absolute ownership rule that permitted unlimited withdrawal.
First Possession
The general acquisition principle that an unowned thing belongs to the first person to take possession with intent to control it, the organizing idea behind capture, finding and discovery cases.
Quasi-Property
A limited right good against a competitor but not against the world, recognized in commercial misappropriation contexts where general property status would restrict the public too broadly.
International News Service v. Associated Press
Decision creating a quasi-property right in hot news, barring a rival from free riding on a competitor's costly newsgathering during the commercial value window, though the facts remain uncopyrightable.
Armory v. Delamirie
Chimney sweep case establishing that a finder has title superior to all but the true owner and prior possessors, and that the wrongdoer bears the risk of uncertainty in valuing withheld property.
Lost Property
Property the owner unintentionally and involuntarily parted with, not knowing where it is. The finder generally prevails over the owner of the place where it was found, subject to statutes.
Mislaid Property
Property intentionally placed somewhere and then forgotten. It goes to the owner of the premises as custodian, on the theory that the true owner may return to the place to reclaim it.
Abandoned Property
Property the owner voluntarily relinquished with intent to give up all rights. The finder who takes possession with intent to own acquires title good even against the former owner.
Treasure Trove
Coin, gold or bullion concealed in the earth long ago with an owner now undiscoverable. Some states award it to the finder; many modern courts fold it into lost or mislaid analysis.
Bailment
The rightful possession of another's personal property by one who is not the owner, created by delivery and acceptance, obliging the bailee to redeliver and to use appropriate care.
Inter Vivos Gift
A lifetime transfer of personal property without consideration requiring donative intent to pass title now, delivery of the item or a substitute, and acceptance by the donee, which is presumed for valuable items.
Gift Causa Mortis
A gift made in apprehension of imminent death from a specific peril. It requires the same intent, delivery and acceptance, and is revoked automatically if the donor survives the anticipated peril.
Constructive and Symbolic Delivery
Substitutes for manual handing over. Constructive delivery transfers the means of access such as a key; symbolic delivery transfers a writing or token representing the item when actual delivery is impracticable.
Adverse Possession Elements
Title passes to a possessor whose use is actual, open and notorious, exclusive, continuous, and hostile or without permission, sustained for the statutory limitations period applicable to ejectment.
Tacking and Privity
Successive adverse possessors may add their periods together to satisfy the statute if they are connected by privity such as a deed, will or descent, rather than by ouster of one another.
Discovery Rule for Chattels
Approach from O'Keeffe v. Snyder under which the limitations period on a stolen chattel begins only when the owner knows or reasonably should know of the claim and the possessor's identity, shifting focus to owner diligence.