Academic

Whose Property?

By Calvin Massey

  A staple of childhood is the ball (foot, base, basket, tennis, etc.) that indavertently lands in a crotchety neighbor's yard.  Usually the kid retrieves it, and maybe gets yelled at by the sour inhabitant.  But an 89 year old Ohio woman keeps the ball and has now been charged with petty theft.  I assume from this skimpy account that requests were made for the return of the object, followed by complaints, followed by this legal action.  The old lady is on thin ice.  Owners of the locus in quo are entitled to possession of abandoned or unowned objects, but not to those items that are owned and not abandoned.  I suppose she has a cause of action for trespass, but she has tort liability for conversion and, perhaps, petty theft.  Not knowing any Ohio criminal law, I defer on that point.  Life would be so much simpler if people just did the right thing:  "I'm sorry, Mrs. --, but our ball landed in your yard. "  "OK, go get it, but please don't do it again."  "We'll try."  Lines from a gentler era.  Sigh.   

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on October 20, 2008 (boomark / email).