Title: Read the Law 2 Earlier and Later Case

SUR 4403Cadastral PrinciplesModule 1 Homework

Title: Read the Law 2 – Earlier and Later Case

Goal – This homework is intended to explore court cases that have a surveying connection. After this homework, you should be able to navigate through cases and understand what's happening.

Assignment:

1. Go to a website where surveying court cases have been posted for the state of Florida:

Once you get there, pick "Florida Case Law." Scroll down to see an extensive list of cases on topics such as "Boundary Disputes" and "Deed Discrepancies", etc

2. Find two connected cases. Browse this website and find two cases that have a "connection" where the later case cites the former case:

Case 1:Earlier case

Case 2: Later case that cites a principle used in the earlier case

The published cases are at the appeals court level. The person bringing the appeal is called the Appellant – usually the Plaintiff or Defendant that lost the trial court case. The person defending the appeal is the Appellee, usually the one that won the local court case. Therefore there was a lower court (trial court) case preceding the appeals case. And the purpose of the appeals case is to determine whether the lower court applied the principles correctly.

The website has a list of "cases which cite this case". This allows you to find two cases to write about.

3. Read the cases. Try to understand the issues the best you can. Try to understand who was the trial court Plaintiff (brought the trial suit) and Defendant (defended the suit.). In particular focus on the principle cited from the earlier case and cited in the later case. Try to understand why the later court cited the former.

4. Describe Case 1. Write a summary of your research in sentence/paragraph form. Try to tell the story in text (no outlines). When did the appeals case happen? In what court? Who was the appellant?(the one bringing the appeal) Who was the appellee (person defending the appeal)?? (Usually the appelant is listed first.) Describe the nature of the conflicting claims by the two parties to the best of your ability. What principles were applied by the judge? What was the decision? Who did the judge decide in favor of? Summarize why the judge decided for the winning party. What was the outcome – was the lower court decision "affirmed", "reversed", or "remanded." (Remanded means sent back down for retrial at the lower level.)

5. Describe Case 2 similar to the above

6. Describe the "connection" principle that was used in the earlier case and cited in the later case. Explain why you think the judge picked this principle.

7. Submit: A MSWORD document double spaced containing your write-ups. Attach this document to the WebCT assignment submission page.

FILE SIZE AND STRUCTURE:

The Word document should be between 3 and 5 pages in length.

Type in minimum text size of 12 point.

Use the "ruler" to expand the left and right margins to a text width of at least 7 inches.