Business Law - Chapter 34 (Personal Property and Bailments)

3 ways to acquire ownership of personal property

*purchasing = most common method 1. possession - ex. killing a deer 2. production - ex. products of writers' or inventors' labor 3. gifts - must have donative intent, delivery, and acceptance by donee

3 types of ordinary bailments

1. bailment for the sole benefit of bailor - *bailee only owes slight duty of care and only liable if grossly negligent * 2. bailment for sole benefit of the bailee - bailor lends to *bailee, who owes duty of care and liable for even slight negligence* 3. bailment for mutual benefit - most common; compensation offered to bailee; *bailee owes duty to exercise reasonable care*

3 necessary elements for bailment

1. must be personal property 2. delivery of possession without title (bailments when bailee is not aware don't count) 3. agreement that property will be returned to bailor

bailee's lien

a possessory (artisan's) lien that a baliee entitled to compensation can place on the bailed property to ensure that they will be paid for services provided

accession

addition of value to personal property; owner typically retains title

personal property

aka personalty or chattel; anything that isn't real property (land and everything permanently attached)

lost or damaged property

bailee assumed to be negligent unless they can prove it was destroyed, lost, or stolen through no fault of the bailee

estray statutes

defines finders' rights in property when true owners are unknown; encourages return of property and rewards finders for honesty if property remains unclaimed

gift causa mortis

gift made in contemplation of imminent death; requires donative intent, delivery, and acceptance, as well as: - donor's death (must be caused by same reason donor initially decided to gift--donor cannot have died from another cause) - donee must not die

common carrier liability

held to standard of care based on strict liability rather than reasonable care in protecting bailed personal property

warehouse company liability

liable for loss or damage to property resulting from negligence; as a professional bailee, warehouses have high degree of care to protect and preserve goods

3 requirements for effective gift

must have donative intent on part of donor, delivery, and acceptance by donee

dominion

ownership rights in property, including right to possess and control the property;

involuntary bailments

party left with personal property of another is still responsible for its care and return; ex. employee leaves briefcase in law firm

fixture

personal property that is affixed to real property in a permanent way, ex. tile installed in a house, and becomes real property

abandoned property

property that was discarded by true owner, who has no intention of reclaiming; finder can claim title to it against anyone including original owner; if finder finds property while trespassing on property of another, the owner of the land will acquire title

lost property

property the owner has involuntarily left;; finder can claim title to property against anyone except true owner

mislaid property

property voluntarily parted with and then inadvertently forgotten; finder does not acquire title; owner of place where property was mislaid becomes caretaker of mislaid property

hotel operators

strict liability unless safes provided

constructive delivery

symbolic delivery or property meant to be gifted that cannot be physically delivered (ex. giving a key to a safe-deposit box instead of giving the box itself); necessary to show "delivery" for gifts of intangible property (ex. documents of ownership of bonds)

confusion

the mixing together of goods belonging to two or more owners to extent that they goods cannot be distinguished; if result of agreement, honest mistake, or act of third party, owners share ownership and share loss in proportion to ownership interest; if result of intentional wrongful act, then innocent party acquires total to the whole

conversion of real property to personal property

when items are removed from the land; ex. trees cut from land, produce picked from trees, minerals harvested from land

conversion of lost property

when the finder of lost property knows the true owner and fails to return the property to that person

baliment

when the personal property of a bailor is entrusted to a bailee, who is obligated to return the bailed property;