Criminal Justice Class 24

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

[OOC: Topic idea from psycho_barbie. Class Info Link.]

*The Tick is at the podium as normal, but his expression has an unusual twinge of annoyance in it. If this twinge is noticed, it might be a good idea not to mention it. Lockheed is on his normal bookshelf.*

Hello, class! Before we get started, Rory will be posting the grades for the quiz you took a few weeks ago. Sorry it took so long to get it graded, but with one thing after another, things have been crazy.

Today we will be talking about real estate law. It seems that some people in class have had some issues adjusting to the fact that some of the places I pull these examples from have anthropomorphic animals as the common residents instead of humans. Therefore, I want you to ignore the fact that we're talking about a duck and two chipmunks today. Instead, just consider them to be an angry man wearing a sailor suit with no pants opposing two very small men who live in a tree.

The pantsless sailor - a Seaman in the Navy named Donald Duck - came into conflict with the short men - Chip and Dale... err, Rescuerangers - because he discovered that they had been living on his property without paying rent. However, they had been living in a tree in the backyard for some time before Seaman Duck bought the property, even though they legally didn't own their tree home. Seaman Duck generally lost his temper as soon as he realized that he couldn't talk the short men into leaving, so he tried any number of schemes to try to drive Chip and Dale Rescuerangers from their home. These schemes sometimes included forcibly removing the Rescuerangers from their home and sometimes involved the attempted destruction of their tree. He did, of course, always find some rather unlikely way to fail because that's how these things go.

Now imagine Seaman Duck's neighbors called the police about the ruckus. What would be the Just solution to this situation in terms of both the initial disturbance and the housing situation itself? Besides telling Seaman Duck to put on pants. That's a given.

Should the Rescuerangers be evicted? Should Seaman Duck be charged with anything? Also ponder that question based on the idea that the Rescuerangers are actually just intelligent chipmunks. Do Seaman Duck's attempts then fall into acceptable pest control?

Discuss any aspect of this situation you'd like.

This week's extra credit is to bring in a seasonal decoration for the class. It could relate to one of the many holidays around this time of year. It could relate simply to the coming of winter. Just make this room festive! Oh, and nothing that melts.

Comments

After Class

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

"Jack Harkness, could I speak to you for a moment?" Tick asked as the class started to filter out.

[can_be_more]

Aeryn considers the question. Luckily she's never seen a duck or a chipmunk. Otherwise she'd have questions. "The chipped monks are in the wrong, but it doesn't seem that the duck actually called the authorities, which he should have done if he couldn't talked the chipped monks into leaving," she says. "If the chipped monks are not supposed to be there and the duck has claim on the property, they should either leave or pay some sort of rent. Since it's the duck's property, he can't be charged with damaging his own things, but if the chipped monk's lives or safety were in danger, he should be charged with something."

[fates_jaye]

Jaye raises her hand. "Ducks can own property now? Is that what's going on at the pond?"

[janet_fraiser]

Janet narrowly manages to suppress laughter at the topic. But she's good to go on this one; she remembers real estate law well enough because, OMG, the player frelling WORKED in commercial real estate for FIVE frelling years, God help her because she'd bought a house.

"Don't Chip and Dale have an easement onto the property because they'd been living there for so many years prior to Seaman Duck's buying the house? I mean, Seaman Duck had better hope that Chip and Dale haven't been living in that tree for too long, because after long enough a certain length of time defined differently in each state, darn it, so I don't know about Virginia, but it's twenty years in Illinois they'd own the tree. And a good lawyer might even be able to make an argument about them owning a radius of around the tree that they've been foraging their food from."

Janet's extra credit is two strands of Christmas lights--one red, and one white. And enough candy canes for the entire class, plus Lockheed, Rory, and Tick. She's got an oatmeal raisin cookie ready in her backpack for Lockheed too, because she's a sucker for a dragon with a sweet tooth for cookies.

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

"I would say that the chipmunks have some kind of squatter's rights to the tree, even though Donald owns the property. I would suggest that mediation process occur where the Chipmunks and the duck come to some kind of property agreement."

[aka-vala.livejournal.com]

Well, if the chipmonks had already been living there before the property was bought, I'd think they'd have some rights just for being there first. For the guy without pants to go after them and try to hurt them or run them off seems just wrong.

And I don't know, but ducks seem more like pests to me than these chipmonk things, so I don't think he'd better try going there.

(For extra credit, she brings in lots (http://www.displaycostume.com/products/111320.jpg) and lots (https://www.hazen.com/catalog/images/holo01.jpg) and lots (http://img.alibaba.com/photo/50065966/Tinsel.jpg) of tinsel. Because it's OMG-so-shiny!)

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"I think all parties here deserve some form of punishment. Donald Duck should definitely get penalised for taking matters in his own hands and for not turning to the police.

I'm not sure if it's legally possible to still evict Chip and Dale if they have been living there for so long and it seems wrong to just make them homeless. Either they willingly broke the law, or something went wrong when the property was sold and the tree shouldn't have been sold along with it. In the first case they should be punished for their crime. Otherwise, maybe they could reach a compromise. Although, I'm not sure if their human rights are met as they'd still be living in a tree..."

Cameron pauses and considers the chipmunks question. "If they're chipmunks, then it would probably be pest control. But Donald Duck should just try to capture them or call an asile and have the chipmunks moved to a forest or something."

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"I'd agree with what much of the class has said about the chipmunks having at least some squatter rights to their domicile," Anakin said. "And Mr. Duck probably should've have tried longer with mediation about possible rent payments before moving into aggressive negotiation tactics."

He tapped his pen on his desk. "In terms of the disturbance they are making in the neighborhood, I'd find both parties reponsible there. In order to be truly Just, I think the housing situation would have to be mediated by an outside, impartial party. The Jedi get used in similar situations, although I don't remember anything in the Archives mentioning either of these species."

He frowned. "As for the pest control issue, I think that as long as the chipmunks have shown some form of intelligence as laid out in laws that govern such things, they should be granted the same rights and priveleges as any other form of intelligent life. Just because Mr. Duck might view them as vermin doesn't necessarily make them so."

[OOC: Reposted because spelling things correctly is Good!]

GRADES!

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

[OOC: GAH. Sorry they're late. I'm going to kill myself now, thanks. *grumbles about coding*]

Rory stuck the grades up by the door as usual.

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

Archie looks horrified, yet fascinated, by the idea of a pantsless sailor, and wonders how anyone would expect any work to get done aboard ship in such conditions.

"Er, possession being nine-tenths and so forth, and the, er, chipmunks having been on the property before Seaman Duck, I would say they had a certain right to their tree. As for Seaman Duck, he ought to be flogged at the grating for profligate pantslessness."

He pauses, smirking just a bit. "Though hunting rodents for sport in the Navy is a fine, upstanding tradition among the lower decks . . ."