Real Property Assignment

461 Words2 Pages
Real Property Assignment 1 By Rachel Myers Alan, who lives in Boring, Oregon, found a lost object that belongs to Bart, who also lives in Boring, Oregon. After Alan found the object, Bart offered a reward for the return of said object. The issues is whether or not Alan can hold Bart’s property until Bart agrees to pay the reward that he originally offered, or can Bart retract his offer? The rules that apply here are based on case law, or common law. The issues here are very similar to those in MacFarlane v. Bloch, in which M.M. Bloch refused to pay the reward offered, and Katherine MacFarlane refused to Bloch’s pocketbook until the reward was received. One of the issues addressed in that case was the relevance of the presence of knowledge at the time of the performance. The court found that this was not relevant, as the reward was not offered for the finding, but for the return of the pocketbook. See MacFarlane v. Bloch, 1911 Ore. LEXIS 98. “Where a reward is offered, the finder, when he complies with the terms of the offer, has a right to retain the property in his hands until promised reward is paid to him.” See Watts v. Ward, 1854 Ore. LEXIS 2 (Or.1854). A reward is an offer of compensation made to the general public, or to a group of people ,for the performance of a special service. When the special service is performed with no obligation to do so being present, a reward offer then becomes a contract. See Kornbrodt v. Equitable Trust Co., 1931 Ore. LEXIS 203. If any term of a contract is not satisfied without legitimate cause, then there is a breach in the contract. As stated in Watts v. Ward, 1 Ore. 86 (Or. 1854), a finder has the right to hold lost property until the offered reward is paid to them. Bart offered a reward for the return of his property. With this being said, Alan does have the right to keep Alan’s property until the promised
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