COTENANTS 9 



persons who hold property, real or personal, by several 

 and distinct titles, or by a single title and several rights, 

 but by unity of possession. The qualities of the estates 

 of the co-tenants may be different, the shares unequal 

 and the manner of acquisition of title not uniform. Pos- 

 session may be the only unity between them, and there 

 may be an entire disunion of interest, title and time. A 

 tenancy in common springs up whenever an estate in real 

 or personal property is owned concurrently by two or more 

 persons under a conveyance or under circumstances which 

 do not either expressly or by necessary implication call 

 for some other form of co-tenancy. Such tenancy may be 

 created by will, by descent, by purchase, sale or convey- 

 ance. 1 Before severance, or partition, each co-tenant is 

 entitled to an interest in every inch of the soil; but no one 

 of them is entitled to the exclusive possession of any par- 

 ticular part of the land, each being entitled to occupy the 

 whole in common with the others or to receive his share 

 of the rents and profits. 2 



12. Joint Tenancy. A joint tenancy exists where a 

 single estate in property, real or personal, is owned by two 

 or more persons, other than husband and wife, under one 

 instrument or act of the parties. 3 Such estate can be created 

 only by a devise, conveyance or act of purchase inter vivos 

 and not by descent or act of law. Unlike tenants in com- 

 mon, joint tenants hold by a single title and one right. A 

 joint tenant can convey his interest to his co-tenant by a 

 release and upon his death his interest goes to the surviving 

 co-tenant or co-tenants. A tenant in common cannot re- 

 lease his interest to his co-tenant nor does the right of 

 survivorship exist in his favor. In both England and the 

 United States the modern tendency of both statutes and 

 court decisions is to hold a conveyance to two or more 

 persons to create a tenancy in common rather than a joint 

 tenancy unless the words of creation expressly require 

 the tenancy to be held joint. 



13. Coparcenary. An estate in coparcenary is an 



1. 38 Cyc. of Law & Proc. Ed. 1904, p. 6. 



2. 38 Cyc. of Law & Proc., p. 4. 



3. 23 Oyc., p. 483. 



