Bifalgorithm post · Property · The complaint alleges that the residence has a solar

128 Cases

128 Cases (Property · The complaint alleges that the residence has a solar) — "128 cases, as their name implies, require malice which is not claimed in this ca…

Ideas in this flowchart

  • The majority's rationale for extending protection to a landowner's access to sunlight is unpersuasive.
  • The majority concludes that this court's prior reluctance to expand protection beyond spite-fence cases rests on obsolete policies.
  • The referenced 128 cases require malice, which is not claimed in this case.
  • The majority identifies three policies as obsolete.
  • Landowners may use their property as they desire provided they cause no physical damage to a neighbor.
  • Historically, sunlight was valued for aesthetics rather than as an energy source.
  • Society has a significant interest in avoiding impediments to land development.
  • The dissent maintains that these policies have not become obsolete.
  • A fundamental legal principle recognizes a landowner's ownership of as much airspace as can be occupied or used with the land.
  • Fontainebleau Hotel Corp. v. Forty-Five Twenty-Five, Inc. is cited as frequently followed authority.
  • A useful and beneficial structure does not create liability for blocking adjoining light, air, or views, even if it partly arises from spite.
  • The dissent firmly supports a landowner's right to use property within established legal limits.
Feed/

128 Cases

Channel

Property

1 page

"128 cases, as their name implies, require malice which is not claimed in this case. The majority then concludes that this court’s past reluctance to extend protection to a landowner’s access to sunlight beyond the spite fence cases is based on obsolete policies which have lost their vigor over the course of the years. The three obsolete policies cited by the majority are: (1) Right of landowners to use their property as they desire as long as no physical damage is done to a neighbor; (2) In the past, sunlight was valued only for aesthetic value, not a source of energy; and (3) Society has a significant interest in not impeding land development. The majority has failed to convince me that these policies are obsolete. It is a fundamental principle of law that a “landowner owns at least as much of the space above the ground as he can occupy or use in connection with the land.” As stated in the frequently cited and followed case of Fontainebleau Hotel Corp. v. Forty-Five Twenty-Five, Inc. , 114 So.2d 357 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1959): There being, then, no legal right to the free flow of light and air from the adjoining land, it is universally held that where a structure serves a useful and beneficial purpose, it does not give rise to a cause of action, either for damages or for an injunction under the maxim sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas , even though it causes injury to another by cutting off the light and air and interfering with the view that would otherwise be available over adjoining land in its natural state, regardless of the fact that the structure may have been erected partly for spite. Id. at 359 (emphasis in original). I firmly believe that a landowner’s right to use his property within the limits of"

Flowchart preview
Series cover
👍
0
0 comments0 shares

Sign in to view and post comments.