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A father conveyed his land to his son by warranty deed. The deed stated that the son paid $125,000 for the land but, in fact, the son had not. However, the son and the father agreed orally that the son would not record the deed until he paid the father the $125,000. The son neither paid the father nor recorded the deed for three years, at which time the property values in the area began to climb rapidly. Wishing to turn a fast profit, the son recorded the deed from the father and one week later conveyed the land to a buyer for $200,000. The buyer promptly recorded the deed. When the father discovered what had transpired, he filed a lawsuit, and the court determined that the son owed the father $125,000. Unfortunately, the son and his $200,000 from the buyer are nowhere to be found. The father asked the court to levy on the land, which the buyer opposed. The jurisdiction in which the land is located has the following statute: “No interest in land shall be good against a subsequent purchaser for value, without notice, unless the interest is recorded.” Which of the following is the buyer’s best defense against the levy?

A dancer rented a small building for her dance school and subleased some of the building space to two other tenants. The dancer paid $5,000 per month to the owner and charged her subtenants $1,000 per month each. After the dancer had been in the building for five years, the owner called her on the phone with a proposal to purchase the building. The dancer and the owner agreed on the call that the dancer would purchase the building for a price of $300,000, to be paid in monthly installments of $5,000 over a five-year period. It was further agreed that when the dancer had paid $180,000 of the total price, the owner would deliver the deed to the dancer. One month later, the dancer spent $5,000 cleaning the mirrors and decorating the studio and dressing rooms in her dance school. Over the next three years, the dancer hired another dance teacher and had him hold classes in one of the spaces formerly occupied by one of the subtenants. She also raised the monthly rent she charged the other subtenant to $1,500. Three years after the agreement with the owner, the dancer demanded that the owner convey the building by delivery of a deed. The owner refused, denying that he had entered into any agreement with the dancer concerning the purchase of the property. The dancer brings an action for specific performance against the owner. If the owner prevails, what is the likely reason?

A man and his nephew lived and worked together on the man’s ranch for 15 years. The man developed severe arthritis as he grew older, and the nephew took over the daily work of running the ranch. The man told his nephew that he wanted to be sure that the ranch would go to the nephew when the man died, so he gave the nephew a quitclaim deed. The nephew did not record the deed, but locked it in a drawer in his desk. Six months later, the man’s daughter learned about this. She asked her father to sell the ranch to her, saying he could continue to live there for the rest of his life. The daughter offered her father a good sum of money for the ranch, so the man agreed. The man and his daughter closed on the sale the next day. The man then told the nephew that he had changed his mind and decided to leave the ranch to his grandchildren. The nephew promised to destroy the deed, and the next week, he did. A month later, however, there was an accident at the ranch and the man and the nephew both died. The man died intestate and was survived by three children, including his daughter. The man’s heirs, the nephew’s heirs, and the daughter claim title to the ranch. The jurisdiction has a notice recording statute. If the nephew’s heirs bring an appropriate action to quiet title to the ranch, who is likely to prevail?

A college student gained weight over the course of his first semester of college. His mother was concerned for his health, so over winter break, she told him that if he joined an on-campus gym and started an exercise routine she would pay the gym’s membership fees, and that she would also pay him $100 for every pound he lost until he returned to a healthy weight. The college student agreed and said he would sign up when he returned to campus. The next day, the college student left his mother’s house to spend the remainder of his winter break at his father’s house. His father also was concerned about his son’s recent weight gain. The college student told his father of his mother’s offer. His father thought it was a great idea and told the college student that if his mother didn’t pay as promised, he would pay. The next semester the college student joined the gym and as a result of his efforts he managed to lose 30 pounds. Shortly before summer break began, the student’s mother died, and his stepfather, who was the executor of the mother’s estate, cancelled the gym membership and refused to pay the college student any money for his weight loss. When the college student told his father what had happened, his father also refused to pay, saying that the student should be satisfied with his weight loss and not concerned with the payment. If the college student brings suit against his father for breach of contract, which of the following represents his father’s best defense?

To impress his new girlfriend, a man executed and delivered to the girlfriend a warranty deed to a vacant cabin. The girlfriend promptly and properly recorded her deed. A month later, the girlfriend moved into the cabin and has occupied the property since. At the time of the conveyance to the girlfriend, the man did not actually own the cabin. His mother was the record title holder, but she had always told the man the cabin would one day be his. Later, the mother died, and her will devised the cabin to the man. Shortly thereafter, the man lost his job and needed money, so he sold the cabin for its full value to a neighbor by warranty deed. The neighbor promptly and properly recorded but did not conduct a title search before accepting the deed. Both the girlfriend and the neighbor now claim ownership of the cabin. The jurisdiction in which the cabin is located has the following statute: “No unrecorded conveyance or mortgage of real property shall be good against subsequent purchasers for value without notice unless the conveyance is recorded.” Who has title to the cabin?

As part of a divorce settlement, an ex-husband made a legally binding promise to his ex-wife to provide housing for their twin 18-year-old daughters throughout their undergraduate college careers. Pursuant to that promise, the ex-husband entered into a contract with a contractor for the renovation of a condominium that the ex-husband purchased near the daughters’ college campus. The contract called for the renovations to be complete before school began on August 1. The contractor began renovating the condo but breached the contract by abandoning the condo unfinished on July 1. The contractor was aware when the agreement was made of the purpose for which the ex-husband wanted the completed condo. Which of the following, if true, would best support the ex-husband’s claim for consequential damages on account of the condo not being finished by August 1?

An employee of a construction company working in a high crime neighborhood negligently cut through power cables. The accident knocked out power to the area and disabled a home’s security system. The homeowner, who was out of town, received an alert from the security company advising her to arrange for someone to go to the house and restart the system with a backup power source. The homeowner got distracted soon after getting the message and neglected to contact anyone. That evening, a burglar broke into the home while power was still off in the neighborhood. Because the security system was not working and the alarm did not go off, the burglar was able to steal jewelry and other valuables from the home and escape. The homeowner sued the construction company for the loss of her valuables in a jurisdiction that has adopted pure comparative negligence rules. Is the homeowner likely to recover?

Myanmar is undergoing fragmentation: large parts of the country, including most of Myanmar’s international borders, are now under the dominion of various ethnic armed groups.  In the above excerpt, the use of the word fragmentation emphasizes

Write an Essay  in which you take a position on Spring Break and support that position in your essay with specific reasons and examples from your own experience, observations, or reading (see the above question). Essay must have an introduction paragraph, conclusion paragraph and 2 body paragraphs (1 boy paragraph if you run out of time).  Include a Works Cited page with source cited.  You are required to have 1 in-text citation of a quote or paraphrase from the source page. The rest of the information comes from you.  For MLA-  include the header (with your name, class etc) and title and name. Do not double space. Instead have extra line between paragraphs.    If you need scratch paper-use what is included and turn that in. Choose Option A or B  Your high school is debating whether or not to cancel Spring break or extend it to two weeks. Take a side on this issue coming up with a well developed thesis and support with specific ideas and examples.  Use the “Spring Break Hype or Hope” article (see above) once in your essay. Write in 3rd person.

What can be logically inferred about solutions to noise pollution from the passage?