What happened to private property?

[pastorables]

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1

I'm not sure I understand this one.

[crispfin]

Perhaps this is comeuppance for years of old folks keeping things thrown in their yard . . . Or just someone taking something to an extreme. Either way.

[forestwalker]

What happened to private property?

The kids' or the old lady's?

[Mister Ed]

When hurricane Ike roared through Kentucky recently and wiped out a massive amount of trees it was asked who was responsible for removing a tree if one fell onto a neighbors property? The answer given by the Media was that the person on whose property the tree fell was the one who had to foot the bill for any damage caused and to clean up the mess. The tree sitting in a persons yard becomes the property of the neighbor if it happens to fall into it. So why would the same principle not apply to a neighbors football?

[oletimer]

If your tree falls on your neightbors house then you are responsible for damage. Ask your insurance agent.

[Mister Ed]

That is what I thought, also. But the TV Media around here said it differently.

Anyway, I think the lady should have pitched the ball back to the kids, if she was able.

[oletimer]

since when did the new people get things right. To listen to them McCain isn't even in the presidentual race.

Where is Dofan at when you need him.

[dolfan]

If you find something that isn't yours, and you know it belongs to someone else, and they demand its return, your failure to return it may constitute theft of property. Even if you find it in your yard and its presence there is uninvited, unwelcome and unwarranted. Sometimes, you just have to be grin and bear it.

That said, if it happened here, no one would prosecute it. You keep putting your ball into an old lady's yard, you lose it. That ain't book law, but it is the law of the neighborhood, and sometimes that IS the law.

[PastorDaniel]

To little information....

Maybe the lady is being mean...

Maybe the kids are being annoying...

I mean...come on....if there are "multiple" complaints....maybe the lady is just tired of kids and people trespassing onto her property....kids are known to "find" other things of interest while in the yard of another person!

Or maybe she's just a grouch! Not enough information

[Mister Ed]

I was just thinking of it this way-----If God blows my tree into my neighbors yard, why should I have to go pick it up?

I have one neighbor who built a house in the shadow of my trees 5 years after I had been here. He knew trees grow, get big, and sometimes fall, before He bought the woods next to mine.

[pastorables]

If you find something that isn't yours, and you know it belongs to someone else, and they demand its return, your failure to return it may constitute theft of property. Even if you find it in your yard and its presence there is uninvited, unwelcome and unwarranted. Sometimes, you just have to be grin and bear it.

So? Someone could park their 4 wheeler in my yard for weeks, without permission, and then just expect to pick it up? Of course, that's hypothetical. I don't think the ole' granny wanted the football, just tired of the dispute over it landing in her yard.

[Poimen]

Private property became federal and state property when we started paying taxes on it.

[darylscook]

If your tree falls on your neightbors house then you are responsible for damage. Ask your insurance agent.

As Lee Corso would say, not so fast my friend. Unless you have reason to believe the tree will fall, you are not responsible for a tree in your yard falling on your neighbor's house. Their insurance is responsible. It happened to our friends. The neighbor's insurance wouldn't pay, it is an act of nature. Their own insurance had to pay.

Their neighbor was nice and paid their deductible for them.

God Bless You
Daryl

[dolfan]

Trees: If a tree falls due to a condition or activity that the owner knows or should know is likely to cause harm to another's property or person, the owner of that tree is liable for the damage caused by the tree's fall.

Now, let's take a situation where a tree just falls. This happened twice in recent months near my home. I was outside pressure washing my driveway one Saturday this summer when my neighbor's tree suddenly just collapsed without warning and grazed his roof. No damage but to the tree, fortunately. About a month ago, a large, very old oak tree downtown in someone's yard fell over and took out a traffic light. No storms in either case. In both cases, the trees had decay inside that many are attributing to the drought conditions in Alabama for past 18 months or so.

Here's the deal: Drought causes trees to die slowly and from the inside and they will fall although they appear healthy on the outside. That's scary. An argument may be made, in Alabama and other southeastern states who've suffered through the dry conditions, that a reasonable person should have known that all trees were sufficiently at risk to have an inspection by a tree expert. That's called "constructive notice", in other words you should've known even if you didn't actually know. And, constructive knowledge is every bit the amount of knowledge as actual knowledge when it comes to law. So, while the results may vary in every case, people in the south have some years ahead where tree falls are going to cause more property damage. In such cases, expect to hear or invoke the you-should-have-known argument. Whether it flies in any case is all dependent on the facts of each case.