ASSIGNMENT #1: SECTION I TEAM ASSIGNMENTS



PROPERTY I & J: INFORMATION MEMO #3 (2/22/10)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. OPTIONAL WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS #3-#5: GENERAL INFO (IM26)

B. WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT #3 (IM26-27)

C. WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT #4 (IM28-30)

D. WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT #5 (IM31-32)

(A) OPTIONAL WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS #3-#5:

GENERAL INFORMATION

(1) You must complete at least one of the optional assignments. If you complete more than one assignment, I will take your three highest scores to determine the number of points you get for the assignments.

(2) For these assignments, you may work alone or in groups of two or three, but you may not work with anyone you worked with on a previous assignment. For Assignments #3 and #5, you may only work with students in your Section. For Assignment #4, you may work with students in either Section, but you may only work with students who are on the same panel (Eagles, Falcons, Hawks or Owls).

(3) I am not assigning a coordinator for these assignments. Therefore, if you work in groups, all team members will receive any applicable formatting penalties.

(4) Although you need not complete all three of these assignments, you still are responsible, for each of them, to do any associated readings and for any information I provide in the comments and best student answers.

(B) WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT #3: READING STATUTES:

INTESTACY & THE VARIETY OF STATE LAW

DUE MONDAY MARCH 8 @ THE START OF CLASS.

1. For this assignment, you may work alone or in groups of 2 or 3. You may not work with any of your partners from Assignments I and II. Follow the general instructions for all assignments on page IM16 and the specific instructions laid out below.

2. You will find it helpful before beginning to read the overview of Intestate Succession (S76-77) and skim through the Florida Intestate Statutes (S77-79)

3. You will be researching the law of intestate succession in one American state. You will choose your state based on the first letters of your pseudonyms as follows:

(a) If the pseudonym of one or more members of your team begins with L, you may choose to do Louisiana if you are brave. If not, follow the instructions below.

(b) If the pseudonyms of every member of your team begin with the letters B, E, J, Q, X, Y or Z (no states begin with these letters) or F (because you cannot do Florida) or L (and you choose not to do Louisiana), you may choose any state beginning with either M or N.

(c) If the pseudonyms of any member of your team begin with any other letters, choose a state beginning with one of those letters.

4. After you have chosen a state, find the statutes for your state that govern intestate succession. Look only for provisions dealing with who receives what if someone dies without a will and definitions and explanations necessary to understand those provisions. Do not worry about provisions dealing with administrative deadlines, filing requirements, the appointment administrators, or payment of debts and taxes. To get a sense of the kinds of provisions I want you to include, look at the excerpts from the Florida Statutes on (S91-93). Please do your research carefully; in some states there are key provisions that are not right next to the rest of the Intestacy Statutes.

5. Your work-product on this assignment will consist of two parts:

(a) A description of the operation of the statutes in non-legal terms that you would use for a client who is not a lawyer. Your description should explain who receives property through intestacy in any situations covered by the statutes. I will be looking for accuracy, thoroughness, and especially the extent to which your description makes the statutory provisions understandable to a layperson. You should organize the description in a way that helps make the whole thing easy to understand. Your descriptions will vary in length depending on the your state, but I expect most of you will find 2-4 pages sufficient.

(b) A critique of the statutes. Your critique should be at least 5 paragraphs long. Issues you might address include whether the distribution mandated by the state conforms to the average person's expectations, whether the language of the statutes is accessible to the average person, whether the statutory scheme is a good way to divide up property, and, if the legislature recently amended the statute, why it might have done so. You might also compare your state’s provisions to Florida’s and/or propose alternatives to both. The critique should incorporate original thinking as opposed to mere restatements of the statutory provisions. I will be looking for clear writing, thoughtful analysis, and an ability to see and address counter-arguments to any positions you take.

6. On Monday, March 8, at the beginning of class, you and your partner(s) (if any) should jointly hand in one copy of your written work-product. The two parts should be incorporated into a single document with the description first and the critique following, beginning on a new page. Please do not attach copies of the statutes. On the top of the first page please put the name of your state in addition to your pseudonyms.

(C) WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT #4:

MAKING ARGUMENTS FROM STATUTES

DUE MONDAY MARCH 22 @ THE START OF CLASS

"THE TEMPEST AT THE TEAPOT"

On May 1, 2009, Ferdinand "Ferdie" Wreckerd rented an apartment from landlord Miranda Ruhl at the Teapot Estates Complex in Miami-Dade County, Florida, under a one-year lease. The lease included the following provisions:

(2)(b) Tenant shall pay rent on or before the fifth (5th) of each month.

(4)(f) Tenant shall have sole responsibility to keep the unit in good repair. Tenant hereby accepts the unit as is, and agrees that Landlord shall have no responsibility to make any repairs of any kind to any part of the building. Extermination of vermin shall be tenant's sole responsibility.

(4)(h) No pets allowed.

Ferdie moved in the day he signed the lease. Although Miranda had placed the appropriate wires in his apartment for him to connect his TV to connect to the local cable television provider, Ferdie did not feel he could afford cable service. Upon moving in, he discovered that his television reception without cable was dreadful, so he immediately made an aerial out of wire hangers and stuck it out his front window.

About a week after he moved in, Ferdie received a notice in the mail from Miranda. It stated:

You are hereby notified that you are both defacing property and keeping a pet in violation of the lease. Demand is hereby made that you remedy the noncompliance within 7 days of receipt of this notice or your lease shall be deemed terminated and you shall vacate such premises upon such termination. If this same conduct or conduct of a similar nature is repeated within 12 months, your tenancy is subject to termination without your being given an opportunity to cure the noncompliance.

This puzzled Ferdie because he had no pets and was unaware of doing anything to deface the property. Mrs. Gonzalo next door, who has lived at the Teapot for 22 years, accurately reported to Ferdie that "she sends that notice to everyone who moves in, and then once a year every year." Ferdie chose to ignore the notice. However, one month later, concerned about the frequent muggings in the neighborhood, Ferdie purchased a Doberman Pinscher, which he named Caliban.

Subsequently, Ferdie discovered that the plumbing in the building often didn't work. Several times a month he couldn't get water and Mrs. Gonzalo reported that other tenants experienced the same difficulties. In addition, the roaches in the kitchen were so big that Caliban refused to go in to that room. Ferdie complained several times to Miranda, but she said she couldn't afford to spend more money on the building, and anyway, it wasn't her responsibility under the lease. Ferdie sent her a scrawled note that said: "Please exterminate!" and enclosed a large cockroach He got no response.

On Monday, December 28, 2009, Ferdie decided to take action. He decided not to pay his rent and put a sign in his window that said "THIS PLACE IS A DUMP! DON'T RENT HERE!" Miranda stopped by that day with a prospective tenant, who left upon seeing the sign. Miranda demanded that Ferdie take down both the sign and the aerial. He refused and they started shouting at each other, at which point the dog, which was hidden in the bedroom, began to bark. Miranda stormed away.

On Thursday, December 31, 2009, a notice was hand-delivered to Ferdie:

You are hereby advised that your lease is terminated effective immediately. You shall have seven days from the delivery of this letter to vacate the premises. This action is taken because you have a pet on the premises in violation of the terms of the lease and because you have defaced the property by placing an aerial on the property.

Ferdie did not vacate or remove his aerial, but he did take Caliban to an animal shelter. On Thursday, January 7, 2010, unsure of the efficacy of the first notice, and realizing that no January rent had appeared, Miranda hand-delivered the following notice to Ferdie:

You are hereby notified that you are indebted to me in the sum of $565 for the rent and use of the premises known as Teapot Estates Apartment 45D, 4657 Prospero Drive, Miami, Miami-Dade County, Florida, now occupied by you and that I demand payment within three days (excluding Saturday, Sunday and legal holidays) from the date of delivery of this notice, to wit, on or before the day of January 10, 2010.

Ferdie still did not vacate or pay rent. On Wednesday, January 13, Miranda filed an action to evict him under the Florida Residential Landlord/Tenant statutes. Please review the Florida Residential Landlord and Tenant Act and the Miami-Dade County Housing Codes and try to develop arguments as to whether Miranda should be successful in her eviction action. Assume the parties have agreed upon the facts above. You SHOULD NOT do any outside research to complete the assignment.

You may work alone or in groups of 2 or 3, but may not work with your partners from prior assignments. You may choose students from either Section as partners as long as they are in the same panel you are. Your assignments, based on your panels, are as follows:

EAGLES: Possible eviction due to pet or aerial (representing tenant)

FALCONS: Possible eviction due to pet or aerial (representing landlord)

HAWKS: Possible eviction due to failure to pay rent (representing tenant)

OWLS: Possible eviction due to failure to pay rent (representing landlord)

You should try to develop the best arguments you can for your client based on the statutes. Try to anticipate arguments the other side will make and refute them. Remember that the only issues that matter are those which will help determine whether Ferdie can stay in the apartment. Where you think a statutory provision is ambiguous, you should make policy arguments about why a court should interpret it in a way that is helpful to your client. However, you need to remember that a court generally will not feel free to ignore relatively clear instructions from the legislature.

Draft a summary of your arguments of at least two-and-a-half double-spaced typed pages. On the top of the first page, put your pseudonyms and the name of your panel. Organize your arguments logically. Do not attempt to write a brief. Do not include a fact section or elaborate introductions or conclusions. Just include the necessary steps in your argument without rhetorical flourish. Use just the statute numbers to cite to the Florida Residential Landlord & Tenant Act and the Housing Code:

Florida forbids tenants to name dogs after Shakespearean characters. (83.0999) Ferdie, by naming his dog Caliban violated this statute. However, the statute only applies if the plumbing is working (83.0999(f)). Moreover, before seeking eviction, the landlord must call the tenant's mother (83.0999(m)). Because Miranda never called Ferdinand's mother and since the plumbing often did not work, Ferdinand's violation of 83.0999 is not grounds for eviction.

Your work-product is due at the beginning of your class on Monday, March 22. If your team includes students from both Section I and Section J, you may turn it in at 10:25. I will be looking for care reading the statutes; clever, well-organized, and well-laid out arguments; care in connecting the arguments to the right to possession of the apartment; and clear and concise writing.

(D) WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT #5:

OBSERVING A ZONING PROCEEDING

DUE MONDAY APRIL 19 @ THE START OF CLASS

For this assignment, you may work alone or in groups of 2 or 3. You may choose your own partners, but may not work with your partners from other Assignments. Before the due date, you and your partners (if any) should observe a zoning proceeding of some sort together. You can either attend a hearing or appeal involving one or more zoning matters in any jurisdiction or watch a proceeding broadcast on local cable TV. Wherever you are, spend at least one hour watching. You may wish to call one of the following local municipal governments to determine a good time and location to go:

City of Coral Gables: 305-460-5211

City of Miami 305-416-2037

City of Miami Beach 305-673-7550

City of South Miami 305-375-2640

Miami-Dade County 305-375-2640

South Miami-Dade 305-234-1510

Before you watch the proceeding, read the materials in Goldstein, Real Property (1st edition) pp. 1213-72 (on reserve in library). You should read the Goldstein material for plot more than for substance. I won't test on it directly, but I do want you to get a sense of how these cases develop and proceed.

At the beginning of class on April 19, you should hand in a memo that incorporates two separate elements: (1) a description of the proceedings; and (2) a summary of your impressions (beginning at the top of a new page). Please do not attach materials handed out at, or otherwise related to, the hearings you observe. In the past, I have been overwhelmed with literally hundreds of pages of such material.

The description should be written in terms accessible to a lay client and, for each matter you observed, should include (at least):

a) The particular agency or board before which the proceeding was held (e.g., St. Louis Board of Zoning Appeals);

b) The date and time of the proceeding (e.g., March 31, 2010; 7:00pm);

c) The parties to the disputes you observed (names if you found them out; their relation to each other--e.g., Missouri Despoilage Co. (developer) v. neighborhood residents);

d) The nature of the dispute (e.g., appeal from order granting variance to build 109 story building on Red River);

e) A summary of the evidence presented and/or the arguments made; and

f) The resolution of the dispute, if any (e.g., Board affirmed order with modifications).

If you witness more than one dispute, you should describe any that you saw on which the agency or board spent more than a few minutes. You need not describe disputes that only resulted in very quick and procedural discussions.

For the description, I will be looking for a clear, concise, well-organized presentation of events that is understandable by someone who did not observe the proceeding themselves.

The summary of your impressions should be at least at least five paragraphs long and should be a collective response to all the proceedings you described (i.e., although you can refer individually to the separate matters you observe, do not create a separate impressions section for each). I am particularly looking for your thoughts about what the readings and your observations suggest about the strengths and weaknesses of zoning. You might discuss things like:

a) the role and effectiveness of the attorneys (if any);

b) the fairness of the process;

c) externalities not addressed by the proceeding;

d) comparison with the Goldstein materials; and

e) what the proceeding suggests about the appropriateness of zoning to resolve land use issues.

As with the critiques assigned for Assignment #3, for the summary, I will be looking for clear writing, thoughtful analysis, and an ability to see and address counter-arguments to any positions you take.

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