Value of life

from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Kidnapped Contract?

Lowering the Bar reports on a kidnapper who sued his victims for breach of contract for escaping.

... Dimmick alleges that, after breaking into the Rowleys' home with a knife and gun, they all then sat down and hashed out a deal under which they would hide him from police (the police who were right outside) for an unspecified amount of money. "Later," he complained, "the Rowleys reneged on said oral contract, resulting in my being shot in the back by authorities." Ergo, breach of contract.

Um, no, wrote the Rowleys' attorney in a motion to dismiss earlier this month. He had multiple arguments, all very good ones, as to why a contract claim would not fly here. First, there was no agreement. Second, if there was an agreement, there was no meeting of the minds on the amount of money (Dimmick admitted the "offer" was for "an unspecified amount"), and so no binding contract. Third, agreements made at knifepoint are, you may be surprised to learn, not enforceable as they are made "under duress." Finally, a contract to do something illegal (e.g. hide a fugitive) is also not enforceable.

Thanks to BoingBoing

Is blowing sand an illegal taking?

From the Kalamazoo Gazette:

“I have a dune that is literally covering my house,” Moravec told the Van Buren County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday.

Moravec lives in the Syndicate Park development north of the North Point Conservation Area, county property that is north of Van Buren State Park along the Lake Michigan shoreline. She said the county’s sand is covering three-quarters of her property.

The sand is coming from a sand dune owned by the county...

When a DNR employee showed up at her home one day, according to Moravec, the employee had to wade through knee-deep sand to get to the door. In winter the sand can be hip-deep, she said, and doors get blocked. “I want to preserve the dune,” Moravec said, but she also wants the sand off her property, which is surrounded by county-owned land.

Afterward the board meeting, Moravec told the Kalamazoo Gazette her next step is to get an attorney. “It’s an illegal taking of my property,” she said of the county allowing sand to migrate onto her property"

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/06/sand_dune_is_swallowing_up_wom.html

Fences

Brian Palmer in Slates writes on Good Fences Make Bad Neighbors.

"Fence laws originated with disputes over livestock, which may wander off their owner's land and cause damage. Judges and legislators have developed three different schemes for allocating the costs of restraining animals. Countries or states with "fence-in" systems require ranchers to build and pay for fences to keep their cattle on their land. "Fence-out" regimes allow livestock to go where they please, and impose the cost of fencing on neighbors who don't want animals on their property. Lastly, a few Solomonic legislatures have split the difference, forcing neighbors to share the cost of a fence, even if one of them doesn't want it."

See the whole essay at Slate.