Ten Notable Property Cases

• Author: Alan R. Romero
• Profession: Professor of law and Director of the Rural Law Center at the University of Wyoming College of Law
• Pages: 329-338

Chapter 19

Ten Notable Property Cases

In This Chapter

▶ Summarizing some important U.S. Supreme Court property law cases

▶ Considering some other leading and memorable property law cases

M

ost property law is state law. In some areas of property law, states

apply very different property rules. So most property law cases that

law students study are just examples. In practice, you’ll be most interested

in cases from your own jurisdiction, and you won’t have any reason to revisit

many of the property cases you studied in law school.

Some property cases are worth remembering, however. Some are worth

remembering because they’re constitutional decisions from the U.S. Supreme

Court and are therefore relevant in all U.S. jurisdictions. Others may be worth

remembering because they’re landmark cases that are often cited even by

other states’ courts or because they consider unique and important issues.

Some may simply help you remember and illustrate fundamental property

law concepts.

There are certainly more than ten property law cases worth remembering,

but in this chapter, I talk about ten that I think are especially notable. I

summarize the basics of each case here, but if you really want to know the

case, look up the opinion.

Spur Industries, Inc. v. Del E. Webb

Development Co.

494 P.2d 700 (Ariz. 1972)

Law school property classes often study Spur Industries, Inc. v. Del E. Webb

Development Co., a nuisance case from Arizona. In 1956 some owners of

property west of Phoenix developed cattle feedlots in an agricultural area

that had many similar operations nearby. In 1960 Spur Industries acquired

the feedlot property and began to expand it from 35 to 114 acres. In the