this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
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Mildly Interesting
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This weird geometrically square way of demarcating properties has created yet another headache-inducing clusterfuck, and has led to much scuttlebutt about the curious concept of "corner hopping" or "corner crossing" and its legal status. I.e., consider properties laid out in the following arrangement:
You are legally standing on property A and know the land owner of of property D who has given you permission to hunt on his land, or whatever. The owners of properties B and C have told you in no uncertain terms that they don't want you on their land even for one single nanosecond, not even violating its airspace -- let's say for no less plausible of a reason than your ancestors fucked them over by unilaterally deciding that they get to cut up and give away their land.
The property lines terminate in two fences joining in a cross. Is it legal for you to hop the fence from property A to D, or if you did so does it count as trespassing on properties B and C?
In a legal sense, can a person move like a bishop, conceptually infinitely thin provided you have no intent to access the land on either side of you, mathematically bisecting a point? Or do you actually move like a knight, unavoidably albeit temporarily occupying either of those squares for an infinitesimal but legally nontrivial amount of time?
Interesting legal problem, but I object to the chess metaphor: knights more than any other chess piece do not occupy any intermediary spaces between where they start and land.
I would just get there by castling. But how to get back?
Holy shit that’s fascinating. This never would have crossed my mind unless I somehow found myself standing at the intersection of four square properties. Such a quintessentially American legal dispute.
Assuming the fence has shared ownership between the owners of the properties it separates I'd say as long as you remain on the fence and only touch property A and D then it is not trespassing as you have shared ownership/permission for 50% of the fence so it's your right to use the fence as you wish as long as there is no damage or you take responsibility for and repair that damage. the airspace exclusion should only apply for extended assisted travel in an aircraft or use of a drone. Honestly seems trivial to me, much more trivial even than retrieving an item a la a ball accidentally thrown too far.
But Ianal..