On Jan. 18 at 5:45 p.m., a meteorite crashed through the ceiling of a medical office in Lorton, Va. It damaged the building and interior finishings but hurt no one. The meteorite’s fall from space is over, but the earthly battle over its ownership has just begun. This, in a circumstance of pure kismet, was a mere 90 minutes after I had wrapped up a lesson in my property law course discussing meteorite ownership disputes, among other things.
“It’s evident that ownership is tied to the landowner,” asserted one of the landlords. The tenant doctors, by publicizing their intent to donate the meteorite to the Smithsonian and any proceeds to Haitian earthquake relief, have likely won the public relations battle in the court of public opinion. But who should win title in a court of law?
