Item.remove() access control

[Brian Moseley]

i'm having an access control problem when removing an item (via WebDAV, 
but i suspect that's not relevant).

i'm issuing DELETE /webdav/bcm/litmus-results.txt as a regular user of 
my server who only has permissions on /webdav/bcm and below. 
DavResourceImpl calls remove() on the Item in question. somewhere below, 
my AccessManager is asked if read permission isGranted() on /. the 
answer to this question is false, and the DELETE fails with a 403.

if i then stop my server and restart it, the repository seems to be out 
of whack, in that PROPFIND /webdav/bcm/litmus-results.txt returns empty 
properties D:getlastmodified, D:getcontentlength, etc.

why is read permission checked on /? and what causes the erroneous 
PROPFIND response after the failed DELETE?

thanks!