NP: Developers and environmentalists

[Robin Landseadel]

On Jul 30, 2009, at 6:11 PM, Page wrote:

> Anyone know the difference between a developer and an  
> environmentalist?

An developer follows the American Waste Doctrine, an environmentalist  
follows the British Waste Doctrine:

Pynchon V. Stearns
11 Metcalf (Mass.), 304. - 1846.:

	. . . As to the alleged acts of waste on the other part of the
	premises, the plaintiff relied upon sundry facts which are not
	disputed; namely, that the defendant had opened a way
	through the premises from one public highway to another; and
	that the defendant had subverted the soil, by digging out part of
	the soil for cellars of houses by him erected; and that he had
	ploughed the lands, dug drains, and had drawn in large
	quantities of earth, thereby raising the land and changing the
	surface thereof. The defendant introduced evidence to show
	that these acts of the defendant were beneficial and not
	prejudicial to the plaintiff, and did not constitute waste. On this
	evidence the jury were instructed that the opening of the way
	was not waste; and that if breaking up meadow land
	occasionally was a judicious and suitable mode of husbandry,
	the changing the surface by breaking up and cultivating it, was
	not waste; and that the removing the soil for the building of
	houses, and the erecting them, and digging drains, if the estate
	on the whole would be equally or more valuable to the owner of
	the inheritance, would not be waste.

	. . .The general rule of law in respect to waste is, that the act
	must be prejudicial to the inheritance. It is defined by
	Blackstone, 3 Bl. Com. 223, to be "a spoil and destruction of the
	estate, either in houses,woods, or lands." It is true, however,
	that it has been held in England, that to change the nature of
	the property by the tenant, although the alteration may be for
	the greater profit of the lessor, was waste. So in England, if the
	tenant converts arable land into wood, or e converse, or
	meadow into plough or pasture land, it is waste.

http://chestofbooks.com/real-estate/Property-Law-In-Land/Use-By-Tenants-For-Life-For-Years-Or-At-Will-In-Possession-Part-20.html