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> Reynolds was in for yet another unwelcome surprise: The developer sued her for being “unjustly enriched” by the construction of the home on her land. The dev

by smeej 2y ago

> Reynolds was in for yet another unwelcome surprise: The developer sued her for being “unjustly enriched” by the construction of the home on her land. The developers’ lawyer told SFGATE in March that Reynolds appeared to be taking advantage of the developer’s mistake. “Keaau Development Partnership is the only entity that has suffered hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of losses,” Peter Olson said. “She’s trying to exploit the situation to get money from my client and the other parties.” Can you imagine if this had worked? If someone could screw up so badly as to build an entire house on land they had no authorization to build on, and sue the owner of that land? Who didn't even know it was happening until it was over? I can think of a long line of people the builder might have a case against here, but suing someone with the argument, "I unjustly enriched you. Give me money," is the most ridiculous thing I've heard in awhile. Just imagine the precedent.

kotaKat 2y ago
> I unjustly enriched you, give me money Ironically, in the mail, we have protections for that. By law, you may keep unsolicited merchandise and are under no obligation to pay for it. Thus: I consider the contractor to be a private courier that delivered a building upon my land. I didn't solicit this merchandise (house), and I'm not paying for it.
- vel0city 2y ago
  There's practically no way to know someone is going to mess up your address. You can't be liable for that. If you're living at a place (or spend a lot of time there) you'd have seen the workers working at your place. Catching them mid job and letting them know right away wouldn't result in unjust enrichment. Letting someone build a whole house on your property while you knew about it would be unjust enrichment.
- bluGill 2y ago
  That only applies if it was addressed to you though. If the mail was addressed to your neighbor and delivered to you then you don't get to keep it.
emilecantin 2y ago
I think this is a case of the lawyer just trying anything for their client, but honestly it makes them look like giant assholes.
vel0city 2y ago
Unjust enrichment is mostly supposed to be if you knew they were doing work at your place when they weren't supposed to be. Say your neighbor pays to redo their backyard. Install a big outdoor kitchen, install a fancy pool with a water slide, etc. They mix up which yard is which. You see them come into your yard and start digging. You think "maybe I should stop them..." but don't. Instead, you let them build out a $100,000 backyard setup in your yard over the next week. You could have stopped them. You were there. The construction workers saw you were home and saw you leave and come back several times during the week. There's no doubt you were aware of the unpaid construction work being done. Instead, you waited until all the work was completed. In this case there's practically little way this owner, who lived over 2,000mi away from the property, would have reasonably known this construction was happening. This is why that case was thrown out.
Retric 2y ago
Unjust enrichment makes sense in different contexts. Dine and Dash doesn’t involve a formal written contract, but the implication of sitting down in a restaurant is clear. One of my neighbors let a family member build a house on their property without explicitly gifting them the land and you can see the inherent conflict involved when the land owner knows and approves what’s going on.

by smeej 2y ago

kotaKat 2y ago

> I unjustly enriched you, give me money Ironically, in the mail, we have protections for that. By law, you may keep unsolicited merchandise and are under no obligation to pay for it. Thus: I consider the contractor to be a private courier that delivered a building upon my land. I didn't solicit this merchandise (house), and I'm not paying for it.

vel0city 2y ago
There's practically no way to know someone is going to mess up your address. You can't be liable for that. If you're living at a place (or spend a lot of time there) you'd have seen the workers working at your place. Catching them mid job and letting them know right away wouldn't result in unjust enrichment. Letting someone build a whole house on your property while you knew about it would be unjust enrichment.
bluGill 2y ago
That only applies if it was addressed to you though. If the mail was addressed to your neighbor and delivered to you then you don't get to keep it.

emilecantin 2y ago

I think this is a case of the lawyer just trying anything for their client, but honestly it makes them look like giant assholes.

vel0city 2y ago

Unjust enrichment is mostly supposed to be if you knew they were doing work at your place when they weren't supposed to be. Say your neighbor pays to redo their backyard. Install a big outdoor kitchen, install a fancy pool with a water slide, etc. They mix up which yard is which. You see them come into your yard and start digging. You think "maybe I should stop them..." but don't. Instead, you let them build out a $100,000 backyard setup in your yard over the next week. You could have stopped them. You were there. The construction workers saw you were home and saw you leave and come back several times during the week. There's no doubt you were aware of the unpaid construction work being done. Instead, you waited until all the work was completed. In this case there's practically little way this owner, who lived over 2,000mi away from the property, would have reasonably known this construction was happening. This is why that case was thrown out.

Retric 2y ago

Unjust enrichment makes sense in different contexts. Dine and Dash doesn’t involve a formal written contract, but the implication of sitting down in a restaurant is clear. One of my neighbors let a family member build a house on their property without explicitly gifting them the land and you can see the inherent conflict involved when the land owner knows and approves what’s going on.