262 



PROPERTY. 



right to use it for a certain time. As, therefore, per- ' which is evidence of its ownership. Personalty has 

 Sonal property includes, as to its subject-matter. Uith also some of the incidents of realty. A chattel may 

 land and other things, the first division of it is into be owned by one person, or by several as joint owners, 

 chattels real, including every interest in land less than Interests, analogous to present and future estates in 

 a freehold ; and chattels personal, all other things realty, may be created in chattels. This, of course, is 

 whatsoever. Chattels personal are said to include true generally ot chattels not intended fur immediate 

 things in possession and things in action ; and by the < n-umption or which are i<rishahlc. but especially of 

 latter is meant the right to sue. as for the n covery of those which yield an income. The chattel may be 

 a debt. This division is incomplete, for there is a given to one for a term of years, or for life, and. upon 

 right to sue for a specific thing when one has been de the termination i.f this interest to another. Chattels 

 i of it; and, on the other hand, there are certain are frequently the subject.-, ot 'dei-ds of trust. The same 



1 ' ' general rules against creating perpetuities apply in case 



of chattels as in realty. 



Then' is a difference between land and personalty in 

 the rules of law which govern each. Land has a fixed 

 locality, and the rules of law which control it are those 

 of the jurisdiction in which it lies, no matter what 

 may be the domicile of the owner, while the law which 

 controls personal property is. generally, that of tho 

 domicile of its owner. While this is generally true, 

 there are some exceptions to it ; as, in the case of tho 

 transfer of stock, the manner of doing this may be 

 regulated by the law of the jurisdiction of the corpo- 

 ration, although that might not be the holder's domi- 

 cile. 



Title, which is the true foundation of ownership, 

 may. in the case of personal property, be acquired by 



intangible property which imply more than 

 a rinht to sue, as one s interest in a partnership or in 

 the stoek of a company. A more a-yurate division 

 of chattels personal would be into things corporeal, 

 including all tangible, visible property ; and things in- 

 corporeal, or all property which is not tangible and 

 risible. Property may pass or be changed from one 

 species into another. Crops and minerals, when not 

 Separate from the land, are part of it, but by sever- 

 ance become personal property : and lumber which is 

 used for the construction of a dwelling becomes part 

 of the realty. Gold, which is realty before it is mined, 

 becomes by severance a corporeal chattel, the owner- 

 ship of which is lost by a loan of the money coined 

 from the gold, and in its place the lender has simply 

 the incorporeal property, the debt for which he may 



sue. In animals that are wild by nature one has a I occupancy : by the act of the parties; by the act ot 

 qualified property so long as they remain upon his the law. Possession is evidence of title, but not eom- 

 premises. plete. A perfect title is where possession and the 



Certain kinds of property lie along the border line right of possession arc in the same pi i 

 between realty and personalty. These are things I Occupancy is the taking possession ot a chattel which 

 which, from their nature, would be considered personal belonged to no one, with the intention of appropriating 

 property, but, by reason of their connection with land, it. One may acquire title to a chattel which has no 

 pass as part of the realty. Heirlooms, as family pic- 1 owner by taking pos-sc-v-ion of it as his own. or by find- 

 tures, armor, title-deeds, are strictly chattels, but as | ing a lost chattel, to which the finder 1ms title against 

 formerly their importance consisted principally in their all the world except the real owner. Title is acquired 



connection with the land, they were considered part 

 of the inheritance and, at the death of the owner, 

 would go with the land to the heir and not to the 

 executor as personal property. They are of little im- 

 portance in this country, as title deeds are generally 

 recorded, and, under the various intestate laws, there 

 is leas distinction than formerly between the heir and 

 those who are entitled to the personal estate. Km 

 blements, or the products of the soil, may be realty or 



in this way, also, to the increase of animals, the off- 

 spring being the property of the owner of the female ; 

 and also to the products of the exertions of one's 

 brain, ius his inventions. 



Title _by the act of the parties is by gift, where a 

 chattel is voluntarily transferred from one to another: 

 or by sale or exchange, when- the property is transfarred 

 for a price, or for some other article ; or by will. Title 

 by the operation of the law is where the property is 



personalty. The question as to which they are is of transferred by a judicial sale, as upon execution for 

 importance chiefly between the landlord and the ten- the payment of a debt ; or by the intestate law when 

 ant upon the termination of a tenancy. Fixtures, the owner dies without a will. In many States tho 

 also, are per-onal chattels which are attached to the ! personal property of one who dies intestate and with 



land. Whether these are strictly chattels or become 

 part of the realty are questions of gre.it importance in 

 tran-actions that may arise U'tween a seller and pur- 

 chaser of land, or between the heir and executor of 

 the deceased owner of land; or between a mortgagee 

 who has loaned money upon the security of premises 

 used as a mill or factory, etc., and the creditor of the 

 mortgagor who is seeking satisfaction out of the per- 

 sonal property of hits debtor ( or between a landlord 

 air! tenant when the dispute is as to what things the 

 Litter has the riirht to remove at the expiration of his 

 tenancy. In determining these resjiectivc rights, 

 great attention was formerly paid to the manner of the 

 connection of the chattel to the land, the rule being 

 that whatever was built into the land, including the 



, 



buildings, became part of it and lidom-i-d to the 

 owner of the realty. But now greater stress is laid 

 upon tho intention of the parties and the: use for 

 which the fixture was intended, and very little upon 

 tin- nature of the physical connection. Tlie leaning is 

 Mrongly in favor of allowing the tenant to rein 

 fixtures placed upon the premises by him for the pur- 

 pose of his trade. 



Among many of (he most valuable species of prop- 



out leaving any known person who may l>e entitled to 

 his property under the statutes ot distribution is 

 vested in the commonwealth by process of escheat. 



LITERARY PROPERTY. 



It seems to be agreed that the right to property is 



a ,- i I-T founded upon occupancy, or first posses- 

 Bee V ol. A I. ' 



p. 356 (p. 316 

 Am. Ilep.). 



MOII. "Occupancy,' 1 says Blackstone, 

 "is the taking possession of those 

 things which In-fore lielonged to nobody. 



This is the true ground and foundation of all property, 

 or of holding those things in severally, whieh by the 

 law of nature, unqualified by that of society, were 

 common to all mankind. \Vhen it was once agreed 

 that everything capable of ownership should have an 

 owner, natural rSM ted that lie who could first 



his intention of appropriating the thing to bis 

 own use, and actually took it into possession, should 

 thereby gain the ab.vilute property of it." Upon the 

 ground of niviipancy depends one's right to what is 

 called his literary property. Literary property is the 

 riirht one lias to the possession, use. and disposal of his 

 own intellectual productions. A per-on is pre-emi- 

 nently the first possessor or oceupant of his own ideas, 



erty in modern timesare inmrpor. al chattels, as stock thoughts, and sentiments. The possessor of these 



in corporations, or patent- or copy-rights. 



products may either keep them to himself or 



Ownership in chattels way be transferred either by by speech freely give them to the public, or put them 

 delivery of the chattel itself, or by delivery of that . into the form of pr 



property by committing them to 



