Question

Please provide a brief answer to each of the following questions:

4. What are the different ways in which personal property can be obtained?

5. What is abandonment?

6. What is a bailment?

Answer 1

Answer to question 4 :

Different ways in which personal property can be obtained:

Acquiring Ownership by Contract : Any kind of property may be acquired and transferred, or bought and sold by contract. Most people get their property by earning money and using it to purchase property.
Example: Someone works to earn money to buy a car.

Acquiring Ownership by Gift : The person making the gift must do two things: (1) show an intent to transfer ownership and (2) deliver the property
The person receiving the gift must either accept the gift either by not rejecting it within a reasonable time or expressly or implied showing acceptance by conduct. Example: Giving Christmas gifts, you buy them for someone and then deliver it to them on Christmas.

Acquiring Ownership by Intellectual Labor : You can acquire personal property rights by original production of intellectual property. Example: Creators taking legal steps to acquire exclusive property rights in such forms of patents and copyrights.

Acquiring Ownership by Inheritance : Personal and real property can be acquired by inheritance. Example: Mother dies and leaves her rings to her daughter.

Acquiring Ownership by Accession : Personal property also may be acquired by the right of an owner of property to a significant increase in that property. The increase can be natural or manmade. Example: If a modem is installed in your computer, it becomes part of the computer.

Acquiring Ownership by Finding : Finders keep lost property

Lost property: Created when the owner does not know when or where is disappeared from the owner's possession
Example: A necklace under a restaurant table.

Acquiring Ownership by Occupancy : Acquiring title by taking possession of personal property that belongs to no one else. Example: Personal property that has been abandoned or discarded by the owner, the the finder who takes possession becomes the owner

Some other ways are -

By foreclosure when someone defaults on a mortgage.

By Compulsory Purchase Order (by the Government or a Local Authority - UK). This is similar to “eminent domain” if the CPO is by the Government for building a new road for example, but it can be used by an LA when a property is causing a danger to the public and the owner refuses to act.

By purchase of a freehold, or long lease.

By a rental agreement.

By reversion when a lease ends, it reverts to the freeholder.

Through Adverse Possession - UK (squatters rights).

By the ending of a Trust - title passes to the beneficiary.

Through bankruptcy of the owner, or liquidation of a company - title passes to the Trustee in Bankruptcy, or Liquidators.

Answer to Question 5:

Abandonment :

The surrender, relinquishment, disclaimer, or cession of property or of rights. Voluntary relinquishment of all right, title, claim, and possession, with the intention of not reclaiming it. The giving up of a thing absolutely, without reference to any particular person or purpose. For example, vacating property with the intention of not returning, so that it may be appropriated by the next comer or finder. The voluntary relinquishment of possession of a thing by its owner with the intention of terminating ownership, but without vesting it in any other person. The relinquishing of all title, possession, or claim, or a virtual, intentional throwing away of property.

Term includes both the intention to abandon and the external act by which the intention is carried into effect. In determining whether someone has abandoned property or rights, the intention is the first and paramount object of inquiry, for there can be no abandonment without the intention to abandon. Abandonment differs from surrender in that surrender requires an agreement, and also from Forfeiture, in that forfeiture may be against the intention of the party alleged to have forfeited.

In the case of children, abandonment is the willful forsaking or forgoing of parental duties. Desertion as a legal concept, is similar in this respect, although broader in scope, covering both real and constructive situations; abandonment is generally seen as involving a specific and tangible forsaking or forgoing.

Property That Can Be Abandoned

Various types of personal property such as personal and household items contracts, copyrights, inventions, and Patents can be abandoned. Certain rights and interests in real property, such as easements and leases, may also be abandoned. Suppose a ranch owner, for example, gives a shepherd an easement to use a path on her property so that the sheep can get to a watering hole. The shepherd later sells his flock and moves out of the state, never intending to return. This conduct demonstrates that the shepherd has abandoned the easement, since he stopped using the path and intends never to use it again. Ownership of real property cannot be obtained because someone else abandoned it but may be gained through Adverse Possession.

Elements of Abandonment

Two things must occur for property to be abandoned: (1) an act by the owner that clearly shows that he or she has given up rights to the property; and (2) an intention that demonstrates that the owner has knowingly relinquished control over it.

Some clear action must be taken to indicate that the owner no longer wants his or her property. Any act is sufficient as long as the property is left free and open to anyone who comes along to claim it. Inaction that is, failure to do something with the property or nonuse of it is not enough to demonstrate that the owner has relinquished rights to the property, even if such nonuse has gone on for a number of years. A farmer's failure to cultivate his or her land or a quarry owner's failure to take stone from his or her quarry, for example, does not mean that either person has abandoned interest in the property.

A person's intention to abandon his or her property may be established by express language to that effect or it may be implied from the circumstances surrounding the owner's treatment of the property, such as leaving it unguarded in a place easily accessible to the public. The passage of time, although not an element of abandonment, may illustrate a person's intention to abandon his or her property.

Answer to Question 6:

Bailment

The temporary placement of control over, or possession of Personal Property by one person, the bailor, into the hands of another, the bailee, for a designated purpose upon which the parties have agreed.The term bailment is derived from the French bailor, "to deliver." It is generally considered to be a contractual relationship since the bailor and bailee, either expressly or impliedly, bind themselves to act according to particular terms. The bailee receives only control or possession of the property while the bailor retains the ownership interests in it. During the specific period a bailment exists, the bailee's interest in the property is superior to that of all others, including the bailor, unless the bailee violates some term of the agreement. Once the purpose for which the property has been delivered has been accomplished, the property will be returned to the bailor or otherwise disposed of pursuant to the bailor's directions.

A bailment is not the same as a sale, which is an intentional transfer of ownership of personal property in exchange for something of value. A bailment involves only a transfer of possession or custody, not of ownership. A rental or lease of personal property might be a bailment, depending upon the agreement of the parties. A bailment is created when a parking garage attendant, the bailee, is given the keys to a motor vehicle by its owner, the bailor. The owner, in addition to renting the space, has transferred possession and control of the vehicle by relinquishing its keys to the attendant. If the keys were not made available and the vehicle was locked, the arrangement would be strictly a rental or lease, since there was no transfer of possession.

A gratuitous loan and the delivery of property for repair or safekeeping are also typical situations in which a bailment is created.

Categories

There are three types of bailments: (1) for the benefit of the bailor and bailee; (2) for the sole benefit of the bailor; and (3) for the sole benefit of the bailee.

A bailment for the mutual benefit of the parties is created when there is an exchange of performances between the parties. A bailment for the repair of an item is a bailment for mutual benefit when the bailee receives a fee in exchange for his or her work.

A bailor receives the sole benefit from a bailment when a bailee acts gratuitously—for example, if a restaurant, a bailee, provides an attended coatroom free of charge to its customers, the bailors. By virtue of the terms of the bailment, the bailee agrees to act without any expectation of compensation. A bailment is created for the sole benefit of the bailee when both parties agree the property temporarily in the bailee's custody is to be used to his or her own advantage without giving anything to the bailor in return. The loan of a book from a library is a bailment for the sole benefit of the bailee.

Elements

Three elements are generally necessary for the existence of a bailment: delivery, acceptance, and consideration.

Actual possession of or control over property must be delivered to a bailee in order to create a bailment. The delivery of actual possession of an item allows the bailee to accomplish his or her duties toward the property without the interference of others. Control over property is not necessarily the same as physical custody of it but, rather, is a type of constructive delivery. The bailor gives the bailee the means of access to taking custody of it, without its actual delivery. The law construes such action as the equivalent of the physical transfer of the item. The delivery of the keys to a safe-deposit box is constructive delivery of its contents.

A requisite to the creation of a bailment is the express or implied acceptance of possession of or control over the property by the bailee. A person cannot unwittingly become a bailee. Because a bailment is a contract, knowledge and acceptance of its terms are essential to its enforcement.

Consideration, the exchange of something of value, must be present for a bailment to exist. Unlike the consideration required for most contracts, as long as one party gives up something of value, such action is regarded as good consideration. It is sufficient that the bailor suffer loss of use of the property by relinquishing its control to the bailee; the bailor has given up something of value the immediate right to control the property.