Fall 2012

Property (Section 4 ) ASSIGNMENTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Daily class assignments are found in the syllabus. Over the course of the semester you will have the opportunity to submit written answers to a set of problems about disability provisions in adverse possession statutes and/or a sample exam question. You should be ready to take a crack at one of the issues in the sample exam question when we reach the end of the section on adverse possession.

The assignment about disability provisions should be relatively easy for people who are taking a course in Legislation and Regulation. It has ten questions, which involve comparing two statutes about disabilities in conjunction with adverse possession. It requires a paragraph for each question (perhaps two on the first one). The ‘answers’ to the questions, in terms of the bottom line, are given in the question. The trick is to justify the answer (or to come up with another one).

The exam question is more complicated. You’re not ready to do all of it right now, but what you are ready to do right now is the part that deals with adverse possession. When we looked at it in September we assumed that Clarissa was, in fact, the owner of the Stark Farm while she and Ebenezer were married. The question was does Ebenezer have any argument that he is the owner now that Clarissa is dead, that her intestate heir is not Ebenezer, but that Ebenezer has been living there for some time, and still is living there? Now that you know some more law, you will see that it’s not completely clear that Clarissa was the owner of the farm while she was alive. We also have a number of other issues to deal with.

I’m a great believer in starting to write early. Students have a tendency not to do so until the end of the semester. I would urge you to take a crack at one or the other of the problems now. I would urge you to take a crack at the final sample exam question. Send me your draft (rspang@law.harvard.edu). I’ll take a look at it, give it a grade, and try to make some comments. If you get me your draft by the end of the Thanksgiving break, I can promise a response. If it’s later than that, I’ll try but I can’t promise.

Listed below are the assignments for discussions that are found in the blog (under the course description) on the iCommons (MyHLS) site for the course. The general discussion is the only one that is active right now. How many I set up depends on popular demand

Below you find a link to the entire sample exam question. You should be ready to do it after the class on Wednesday, 9 November. (There is an issue in it about public control of land use, but that issue is mostly a ‘red herring’. Anybody who has taken a course in Legislation and Regulation should be able to handle it.) My deal on the sample exam is this: If you get me a draft answer to the question by 4:30 on Wednesday, 23 November, I promise to get it back to you with a grade on it within a week. (I usually am able to provide brief comments as well, but that’s not a promise.) If you get it to me after 23 November, I’ll do my best, but I can’t promise.

Sample Essay Question (Practice Exam) (Word doc)

The sample objective questions (linked below) are self-testing. The answers (with a bit of an explanation) are given at the back.

Sample Objective Questions and Answers (Word doc)

At the end of the course, I will open a discussion group for email questions. Send me a question about something that is bothering you. I'll try to answer it in a short period of time. I will then post the question and the answer anonymously here, under the broad topics listed below, with the number of questions in parentheses. What's there now is mostly from when I gave the course last spring.

Problems on Disability Provisions	Sample Exam Question (1st Version)	Sample Exam Question (Final Version)
Sample Exam Answer 2009	Sample Exam Memo 2009	Sample Exam Supplement 2009

This Year’s Exam (3)	Possession (5)	Future Interests (11)	Rule Against Perpetuities (10)	Concurrent & Marital Estates (8)
Easements and Covenants (7)	Public Control (1)	Prior Exams (5)

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URL: http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/cdonahue/courses/prop/assign/index_assign.html
last modified: 12/13/12

© 2012 Charles Donahue, Jr. .