PROPERTY. 



261 



Seek for his heir to the remotest degree of relation- 

 ship. 



An interest which is smaller than a life-estate or 

 freehold is an estate for a term of years, or the usual 

 tenancy, as it is generally understood. The tenant has 

 not the possession of the soil, but only the use of the 

 land. Of so much dignity and value did the old law 

 esteem the freehold that an estate for even a period of 

 years very much longer than an ordinary life was con- 

 sidered of less importance. And this theoretical dis- 

 tinction is still observed. This estate is in some re- 

 spects peculiar, for while the property is itself land, 

 the interest of the tenant, being less than a freehold, is 

 personal property and not real estate, and, at the same 

 time, as to most of his obligations in respect of his 

 property, to all persons except his landlord he is held 

 responsible practically as the owner of the land. The 

 mutual rights and duties of the tenant and his landlord 

 are generally regulated by contract between them, but. 

 in the absence of any agreement, they are governed by 

 the rules of law usually applicable to real property. 

 The disposition of the estate, if the tenant dies before 

 the expiration of his term, is governed by the rules 

 which regulate personal property, and not those which 

 control the descent of realty. 



An estate may be created to begin or end upon the 

 happening, or not happening, of some event, and, in 

 this case, it is said to depend upon a condition. Most 

 of the cases where real estate is g^iven as security for 

 debt arc conditional estates : that is, an estate granted 

 upon condition that it shall cease when the debt is 

 paid . 



The whole of an estate may be granted or devised to 

 one person, or it may be divided into portions for suc- 

 cessive periods, and each be given to a different indi- 

 vidual. So a fee-simple may be carved up so as to 

 take out of it several smaller estates before the final 

 vesting in possession of the fee. As, however, the 

 policy of the law is against any restraint upon the free- 

 dom of alienation, the limit of time within which these 

 smaller estates may be created is generally regulated 

 by statute. 



A person may have certain rights in the land of 

 another, and these are regarded as interests in real 

 estate. A man may acquire the right of way over the 

 land of another person ; and adjoining owners have 

 certain mutual rights of support in the houses or lands 

 of each other. 



An interest in land may be divided into a leeal and 

 an equitable estate, and the owner of each has bin own 

 special enjoyment and rights. This is accomplished by 

 giving the legal estate to one as trustee for another ; 

 the latter is said to have the equitable estate. 



The trustee is possessed of whatever extent of inter- 

 est is necessary to enable him to carry out the provis- 

 ions of the*rust. and his management of the estate is 

 intended to be ior the benefit of the person for whom 

 he holds it. The interests of the beneficiaries, or 

 equitable owners, and whatever rights of enjoyment or 

 disposal they have, are usually denned by the terms of 

 the instrument which creates the trust. These estates 

 are created for a great variety of purposes ; frequently 

 for the benefit of some one who, on account of some 

 disability, cannot hold the legal estate, or for some 

 improvident person who would squander the estate ii 

 he had full control, but for whose support some pro- 

 vision is desired. They are also created in order to 

 preserve the estate intact for the person who i to be 

 finally entitled to it, while the income is to be dis- 

 tributed to different individuals for a period of years, 

 or one or more lives. The duty of the trustee is to 

 hold and manage the estate, and distribute the income 

 as the trust directs. To make a pood trust the trust. < 

 must have some actual duties to perform ; if he is 

 linn !( the depository simply of the legal title, the law 

 will strike down the trust and vest the legaj as well as 

 the equitnMe estate in the person who is entitled to the 

 Utter. When the purpose* of the trust have been 



accomplished, and the equitable estate vests in those 

 who are finally entitled to it, the trust dies out, and 

 the legal und equitable estates merge iu the samo 

 owner. 



The owner of an estate may he one individual, or 

 several who are joint owners. These joint owners may 

 have the same quantity of interest, and hold by the 

 same title, and acquire their estate at the same time ; 

 or they may have simply one possession of the same 

 piece of property but for different interests as one for 

 lifCj the other in fee and they may have acquired 

 their titles at different times. 



The extent of the owner's enjoyment in, and right 

 of disposal of, his estate depends upon the extent of 

 his interest in the land. The right of disposal by will 

 is, however, restricted by statutory regulations, in many 

 of the States, in two directions : first, in fixing at what 

 period of time before the death a devise or grant for 

 charitable uses can be made ; and second, what share 

 of the estate cannot be devised but must be left for the 

 decedent's family. Subject to these limitations, he 

 has, generally, the right to do as he pleases with his 

 own property, provided he does not injure the righta 

 of others in the same property or infringe upon the 

 righta of the use and enjoyment of his neighbors in 

 their possessions. 



It is a general rule in this country that real estate is 

 liable for the payment of the debts of its owner. A 

 creditor can, by legal process, put his debt in such a 

 position that it becomes a lien, under statutory limita- 

 tions as to time, etc. , upon the real estate of his debtor, 

 and when this is done, a transfer of the property by 

 the owner will convey it subject to this lien. Real 

 estate is also liable to be taken by the government, 

 either by taxation or under the right of eminent 

 domain. This latter right, however, is subject to the 

 conditions that it can be taken for the public benefit 

 only, and upon due compensation to the owner. 



Title to real estate is defined by Blackstone to foe 

 "the means whereby a man comcth to the just pos- 

 session of his property. " Where the right of posses- 

 sion, the right of property, and actual possession exist 

 in the same person, he has a j>erfect title. Title may 

 be acquired by occupancy. This is the taking possession 

 of land which has no owner, or the taking possession 

 of land which belongs to another and holding the 

 same adversely to the title of the real owner. It 

 may also be acquired by the act of the parties, as 

 by gift or sale and this, in the case of real estate, 

 must be by a deed or^by will; or by the operation 

 of law. as by a judicial sale, a sale under legal 

 proceedings, or by forfeiture ; or by descent, where 

 the law casts the property upon whomsoever it desig- 

 nates to be entitled to it, in case the owner dies with- 

 out a will ; or by escheat, which is a proceeding by 

 which the title to lands, where the owner dies with- 

 out any heirs, becomes vested in the commonwealth. 



PERSONAL PROPERTY. 



Personal property includes every species of property 

 . that is not real estate, or an estate in 



664 ( 677 land " To '"'der 8 '?"* 1 what this ex ' 

 Am Kep) pression means it is necessary to re- 



call what the old law designated an 

 "estate in land," to wit, the possession of the soil by 

 a freeman. As the smallest estate of freehold was 

 the life-estate, any interest which was less than this in 

 value or dignity was sim ply personal estate. The word 

 "estate" does not fairly express the owner's inter- 

 est in reference to personal property. For "estate" 

 meant his interest in land, whereas in the case of per- 

 sonalty the owner possessed not an "interest" in it, 

 but the very thing itself. The property is designated 

 as "personal" because, unlike land which has a fixed 

 location and is immovable, this can accompany its 

 owner's person wherever he goes, subject only to the 

 limitation inherent in the particular case. After the 

 possession of the soil, the next interest in it is the 



