Common Law Arson Review
Let us assume that I have a habit in the morning of picking up the teakettle with a dishtowel (because it is all metal and gets very hot) and then recklessly flinging said towel onto the burners afterwards. Of course we can also assume that my apartment has shitty appliances, including the semi-functional stove, which requires that you first light the back left burner before any of the other burners will light.
Let us assume that I went to make my thai noodle packet/massive sodium infusion for lunch, and that I failed to notice the dishtowel lying on top of the back left burner when I turned it on because I have been studying Property and not Crim Law or Torts (which both make me very paranoid that I am about to be maimed in some way).
Now, IF the towel is only scorched, I am clearly not guilty of common law arson. But what if the towel is actually charred (e.g., little black chunks can be scraped off with one's hypothetical fingernail)? What then, my pretties? What then?
(a) not arson unless my boyfriend notices when he gets home
(b) arson, if and only if it was my boyfriend's towel, since only his name is on the lease
(c) not arson, unless the towel matched the stove really well
(d) arson if I was subconciously trying to commit suicide by burning the apartment down
Let us assume that I went to make my thai noodle packet/massive sodium infusion for lunch, and that I failed to notice the dishtowel lying on top of the back left burner when I turned it on because I have been studying Property and not Crim Law or Torts (which both make me very paranoid that I am about to be maimed in some way).
Now, IF the towel is only scorched, I am clearly not guilty of common law arson. But what if the towel is actually charred (e.g., little black chunks can be scraped off with one's hypothetical fingernail)? What then, my pretties? What then?
(a) not arson unless my boyfriend notices when he gets home
(b) arson, if and only if it was my boyfriend's towel, since only his name is on the lease
(c) not arson, unless the towel matched the stove really well
(d) arson if I was subconciously trying to commit suicide by burning the apartment down
posted by feithline @ 8:58 AM
1 Comments:
At 12:58 PM,
feithline said…
According to BarBri, the answer to my question would be (c), because it is an accession to a fixture based on the logic of this fabulous practice question:
Frogsmith was a wealthy and philanthropic resident of Hightown. Frogsmith's pride was the Frogsmith mansion, which Frogsmith had built to his exact specifications on Froggy Hill 40 years ago. A special feature of the mansion was a pipe organ that was built into the wall of the music room. The organ was impressive, with beautiful handcarved wood scrollwork. The same European artisans who carved the organ carved its accompanying bench, designed to seat the person playing the organ. The bench was made from the same wood as the organ and was carved to match the patterns on the organ. The bench was fully movable and could be slid into a niche beside the organ when not in use, although Frogsmith usually left the bench in front of the organ for its matching effect, even when the organ was not being played.
Frogsmith died, and his will left all of his personal property to his only child, Chuckles, and all of his real property to the Hightown Community Trust, a local community fund charity. After the will was admitted to probate, Chuckles had a large moving truck driven to the Frogsmith mansion. Chuckles proceeded to remove all the furniture, silver, linen, and other movables from the mansion. Among the items taken by Chuckles was the organ bench. Snootnose, the president of the Hightown Community Trust, noticed that the organ bench was gone. Snootnose asked Chuckles to return the bench to the mansion. Chuckles refused.
If the Hightown Community Trust brings suit against Chuckles to replevy the bench, the court will rule in favor of:
(A) Chuckles, because the bench is personalty because it was not bolted to the floor.
(B) Chuckles, because removing the bench does not damage the real property.
(C) The Trust, because the bench is an accession to a fixture and cannot be removed.
(D) The Trust, because removal of the bench reduces the value of the devise to the Trust.
Answer:
(C) Hightown Community Trust will win because the organ is a fixture and the bench is integrally connected to the organ. Under the concept of fixtures, a chattel that has been annexed to real property is converted from personalty to realty. As an accessory to the land, it passes with ownership of the land rather than with a transfer of the personal property of an estate. The manifest intent of the annexor determines whether the chattel becomes a fixture. The factors for evaluating the annexor's intent are: (i) the relationship between the annexor and the premises, (ii) the degree of annexation, and (iii) the nature and use of the chattel. Under this analysis the organ itself is clearly a fixture: (i) Frogsmith was the fee owner of the mansion and had the organ built to his specifications when the mansion was constructed; (ii) the organ was built into the wall of the mansion and could not be easily removed; and (iii) the appearance of the organ and how it complemented the rest of the mansion probably were more important to Frogsmith than its function. An accession is an addition to personal property that becomes an integral part of the property in the same sense that a fixture becomes an integral part of the realty. The doctrine is fully applicable in this case even though the accession goes with an item of property that is itself converted from personalty to realty, as the organ was here. The bench is an accession because it was created as an integral part of the organ and significantly contributes to an important aspect of the organ: its overall appearance. Removing the bench and replacing it with a bench made of different wood or carvings would damage the aesthetic value of the organ. Thus, Hightown Community Trust will succeed in obtaining the bench because it is not severable from the organ.
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