NEWSLETTER
Property law is full of all kinds of crazy things, thanks in large part to the way our country and its expansion have evolved over the course of a couple centuries. It was among my two worst classes in law school, and I’ll just pretend I’m proud of that fact, given how screwy the field is.
To wit: a man reportedly took title to Petco Park, the home of the San Diego Padres, two years ago by simply filling out a deed transfer and properly filing it in the San Diego County Recorder’s Office.
You can read about the strange episode here in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
To be sure, the man did not actually take legitimate ownership of Petco Park by filing the transfer deed, because there was not actually a transfer. If he were to try and sell the property, it wouldn’t be legal.
Furthermore, there are processes by which the Padres can nullify his bogus deed transfer, though they are a pain in the butt and are currently being complicated by the fact that the man at issue is apparently mentally ill.
The lesson? If you want to actually own a Major League ballpark, you’re going to have to buy it. If you want to take title just for kicks, you might be able to do it, since property law is silly. But all you’re going to accomplish is a series of headaches for other people, and, in the process, you might go to jail for fraud. So, you know, don’t do that.
Fortunately for the Padres, at the end of this, they won’t actually lose Petco Park, which is good news – if they had, maybe we wouldn’t have gotten that incredible golf course inside Petco.
