Owner of power line easement may install fibre optic cables without exceeding the scope of the easement

In a case applying what appears to be the majority rule, the Seventh Circuit held that an easement for power lines included the right to install lines for other purposes -- in this case fibre optic cables. West v. Louisville Gas & Electric Co., 951 F.3d 827 (7th Cir. 2020). The Texas Supreme Court rejected this...

Fracking may be a trespass if it involves physical intrusion on land owned by others

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court reaffirmed the rule of capture that allows an owner to withdraw oil and gas from beneath its property even if doing so draws oil and gas from beneath the land of others. The question was whether fracking is any different. In Briggs v. Southwestern Energy Production Co., 224 A.3d 334 (Pa. 2020), the court held that these rules do...

Bird feeding can be a nuisance

In a somewhat surprising but ultimately understandable case, the Montana Supreme Court held that bird feeding could constitute a nuisance that causes substantial and unreasonable harm to a neighboring owner. Simpkins v. Speck, 443 P.3d 428 (Mont. 2019).

Both sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination are forms of sex discrimination

Although decided under Title VII (employment discrimination) rather than the Fair Housing Act, the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, 140 S.Ct. 1731 (2020) that both sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination are forms of sex discrimination is quite likely to be extended to the housing context. Justice Gorsuch’s majority opinion focused on a textual...

No regulatory taking despite temporary flooding since the government’s action avoided more harm than it caused

In Alford v. United States, 961 F.3d 1380 (Fed. Cir. 2020), owners complained that the Army Corps of Engineers took their properties by temporarily flooding a nearby lake, knowing it would damage the plaintiffs’ property but doing so to avoid even greater damage to their property from a breach of the levee that was almost certain to occur if the Corps had not acted and which would have resulted in the complete destruction of plaintiffs’ properties. The Federal Circuit... Read more about No regulatory taking despite temporary flooding since the government’s action avoided more harm than it caused

Adverse possession available against city when land was not being used for a public purpose

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has joined the modern movement to allow adverse possession claims against cities when the city’s land being occupied was not being devoted to a public purpose during the period was it was occupied by the adverse possessor. City of Philadephia v. Galdo, 217 A.3d 811 (Pa. 2019).

Joseph William Singer

Bussey Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

August 2020

Owner of power line easement may install fibre optic cables without exceeding the scope of the easement

Fracking may be a trespass if it involves physical intrusion on land owned by others

Bird feeding can be a nuisance

Both sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination are forms of sex discrimination

No regulatory taking despite temporary flooding since the government’s action avoided more harm than it caused

Adverse possession available against city when land was not being used for a public purpose

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