Property Law Field Trip

This semester's Property Law class (PARA 108) studied the case of Corn v. Corn, in which various family members engage in a decades-long fight over ... a driveway. The case was a class favorite, and the students were delighted to realize that the storied driveway was located a mere 75 miles away in Wabash County. And so we decided to take a field trip out to Wabash County to see ... the driveway.

Sure, it was arguably the silliest field trip EVER, but it provided an opportunity for bonding. And I think we would all have to admit that it WAS cool to see for ourselves a piece of property that had sparked a court case.

Here are the 5 students who went on the field trip standing on the Corn driveway (a minor trespass, but no harm done).

In the background is the home of one of the litigants. Care to see the home of one of the other litigants?  Here you go:

Those two (brother and sister, we think) were on the same side against the homeowner at the end of the driveway. So here's the famous driveway, all by itself:

Yep, that's the gravel lane that launched a thousand ships, so to speak.

Anyway, on our way from there to lunch, we stopped at a cemetery. I'd rather not go into why. The name alone did make it intriguing: The International Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery of Lagro, Indiana. While this was not a scheduled stop, it turned to have its own charm. It is apparently acceptable, in the IOOF Cemetery, to do a little advertising on one's tombstone.

No, even I can't tie that in to property law, but it was well worth the short detour.

Boring? I don't think so.
We finished the day at the West Lafayette Banana House, which had been the subject of a zoning dispute a few years ago when the owners were charged with having an improper billboard, and they responded that it was art. You can decide for yourself.