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Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property are categories of the common law of property which deals with personal property or chattel which has left the possession of its rightful owner without having directly entered the possession of another person. Property can be considered lost, mislaid or abandoned depending on the circumstances under which it is found by the next party who obtains its possession. There is an old saying that ''possession is nine-tenths of the law'', perhaps dating back centuries. This means that in most cases, the possessor of a piece of property is its rightful owner without evidence to the contrary. More colloquially, this may be called finders, keepers. The contradiction to this principle is theft by finding, which may occur if conversion occurs after finding someone else's property. The rights of a finder of such property are determined in part by the status in which it is found. Because these classifications have developed under the common law of England, they turn on nuanced distinctions. The general rule attaching to the three types of property may be summarized as: ''A finder of property acquires no rights in mislaid property, is entitled to possession of lost property against everyone except the true owner, and is entitled to keep abandoned property.''〔''Michael v. First Chicago Corp.'', 139 Ill. App. 3d 374, 382, 487 N.E.2d 403, 409 (1985)〕 This rule varies by jurisdiction.〔Jesse Dukeminier and James E. Krier, ''Property, Fifth Edition'', Aspen Law & Business (New York, 2002), p. 120. ISBN 0-7355-2437-8〕 ==Lost property== Property is generally deemed to have been lost if it is found in a place where the true owner likely did not intend to set it down, and where it is not likely to be found by the true owner. At common law, the finder of a lost item could claim the right to possess the item against any person except the true owner or any previous possessors.〔''Armory v. Delamirie'', 1 Strange 505 (King’s Bench, 1722)〕〔 The underlying policy goals to these distinctions are to (hopefully) see that the property is returned to its true original owner, or "title owner." Most jurisdictions have now enacted statutes requiring that the finder of lost property turn it in to the proper authorities; if the true owner does not arrive to claim the property within a certain period of time, the property is returned to the finder as his own, or is disposed of.〔Jesse Dukeminier and James E. Krier, ''Property, Fifth Edition'', Aspen Law & Business (New York, 2002), p. 123-24. ISBN 0-7355-2437-8〕 In Britain, many public businesses have a lost property desk, which in the United States would be called a lost and found. Many exceptions may be applied at common law to the rule that the first finder of lost property has a superior claim of right over any other person except the previous owner. For example, a trespasser's claim to lost property which he finds while trespassing is generally inferior to the claim of the respective landowner. As a corollary to this exception, a landowner has superior claim over a find made within the non-public areas of his property, so if a customer finds lost property in the public area of a store, the customer has superior claim to the lost property over that of the store-owner, but if the customer finds the lost property in the non-public area of that store, such as an area marked "Employees Only," the store-owner will have superior claim, as the customer was trespassing when he found it.〔''Bridges v. Hawkesworth'', (1851)〕 The status of finders as employees or tenants of the landowner complicates matters, because employees and tenants have legitimate access to non-public areas of a landowner's property that others would not, without trespassing. Employees and tenants, however, still usually lose superior claim over lost property to their employers or landlords if the property is found within the scope of their employment, or outside the actual leased area, respectively.〔Jesse Dukeminier and James E. Krier, ''Property, Fifth Edition'', Aspen Law & Business (New York, 2002), p. 120-123. ISBN 0-7355-2437-8〕 For example, if the lost property is found by a tenant inside the walls of his leasehold, or by an employee embedded within the soil of an estate owned by his employer, the landowner (as employer or landlord) of the property where it was found usually has a superior claim of right over that of the finder. However, this is not always the case, as a long-term tenant who finds lost property within the leased area of his leasehold may have a superior claim over that of his landlord (especially if the landlord has never been to the property). While employers usually have a superior claim over lost property found by their employees, exceptions to this exist as well, as modern law sometimes grants the employee superior claim if turning over lost property to his employer is not part of his job description (such as if the employee is an interior decorator).〔''Erickson v. Sinykin,'' 26 N.W.2d 172 (Minn. 1947)〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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