T K R 



the twenty-four day* for the tril of my cause i 

 Priii*. The sitting* during tlu -e twenty-four and six days 

 ar* called the sitting aHer Term, and are held for the 

 trial* for cause* at Niki Priiis Tor London and Westminster, 

 which placesdonot form part of any of the circuits. Sittings 

 i Prim arv alto held for the name purpose before angle 

 judge* during Term time, but no special jury cases are 

 taken within the Term. (Spelman, Oftht Tfrmt ; 3 Black- 



., 278.) 



TERM (of year). in legal language, gninen the estate 

 and interest which i>a*> to the person to whom an estate 

 . care is granted by the owner of the fee. 



, art may be created by a conveyance at 

 common law, but no estate it vested in the grantee, nor 

 anything beyond a mere intrrrtur termini, until an actual 

 entry i> mmfe by him upon the land. The tenant for a term 

 of years is not said to be seised of the land, and the pos- 

 session is not given to him by livery of seisin. The de- 

 livery of a lease for years gives to the grantee a right of 

 entry on the land ; when he actually enters, he becomes 

 possessed of the term ; the seisin of the freehold still re- 

 mains in the lessor, and the possession of the les- 

 Tears is then considered as the possession of the person 

 entitled to the freehold or reversion expectant on tne de- 

 termination of the terra. (Co. I.itt.. 200 to 



By the operation of the Statute of Uses an estate for a 

 term of years may be created without an entry by the 

 termor ; as where a freehold estate is conveyed to A and 

 his heirs to the use of B for 09 years, with "remainder to 

 the grantor in fee : there the use' is immediately executed 

 in H. and the statute instantly annexes to it the legal es- 

 tate, without any actual entry by H. 

 A term of years may also oe created by devise in a will. 

 A term of years may be limited to commence infuturo, 

 rhich a freehold cannot ; for the freehold is not put in 

 abeyance by the creation of such a term, as it would be 

 by the creation of a freehold estate to commence infuturo, 

 but it continues in the grantor. ( 'o. I.itt., 46 a.) 



A term of years may be limited so as to cease by a pro- 

 viso in the conveyance itself, upon the happening of any 

 event, or the performance of any particular act vf'o. LitC 

 46 a.) ; and it is usual, when terms of years are created for 

 the purposes of certain trusts, to insert a proviso for the 

 cesser of the term upon the performance and satisfaction 

 of the trusts of the term. 



Long terms, as of 500 or 1000 years, are frequently 

 created by way of mortgage, with a proviso for determining 

 them upon payment of the money by a certain day. 

 are more advantageous than mortgages in fee 

 in one respect, that there does not arise, as in the case 

 of the latter, a separation of the legal estate and the 

 interest in the debt upon the death of the mortgagee. 

 ir terms are also frequently granted to the tnistees 

 of marriage settlements for the purpose of enabling them 

 by sale or mortgage of the terms to raise portions for chil- 

 dren and for other purposes. It sometimes happens there- 

 fore that, though courts of equity interfere, as in case of 

 mortgages in lee, to enlarge the period of redemption, 

 long terms of yean of the kind above mentioned become 

 absolute property. Again, it frequently happens that 

 when a redemption does take place after the time fixed in 

 the original contract, when, according to the theory of 

 mortgages the estate has become absolute at law, the 

 instead of being surrendered to the owner of the 

 inheritance, be assigned to a trustee for him and his heirs, 

 and retained as an appendage to that inheritance under 

 the name of an attendant term. The advantage of this 

 practice is that it gives the power of defeating the claims 

 of strangers upon the inheritance, by setting up tli 

 as prior in creation, and therefore in right. The right to 

 take advantage of such terms is limited by courts of 

 to such incumbrances as the owner of the inheritance had 

 "f at the time when he acquired it ; otherwise it 

 is obvious that great injustice might be occasioned by the 

 use of them. A term of years attendant on the inheritance 

 verned by the same rules as the inheritance itself is 

 t to. The right to it does not go to executors, but 

 follow* UK the inheritance. It will not be 



Hied at a chattel by the felony of the owner of the in- 

 heritance; but if the inheritance escheat, the term will 



As to the assignment of 



attendant and outstanding terms to attend the inheritance, 

 Ato 



T E R 



Terms of years are considered in law not as real estate, 

 but as chattel interests in real property, ai: 

 do not descend to the heir of the jM-rson who dies possessed 

 of them, but vest in his executor or administrator, like any 

 other chattel ; and the is the same whatever be 



the length of the tenii. t a.) 



Marriage entitles the husband to the terms of years be- 

 longing to his wife, as well as to tlu 



He may administer to the estate ol :ised 



wife, and is entitled for his own benefit to her eh 

 real, whether reduced into possession, or reversions) 

 contingent ; and in case of the husband's death after the 

 wife, his next of kin, and not hers, are entitled to th 

 ministration. (Co. I.itt., 351 a.) The husband may. during 

 the wife's life, dispose of her chattels real by a- 

 but not by will : and if he dies without having assi 

 them, they "ill belong to the .surviving w ; the 



husband be an alien, he cannot acquire by marriage any 

 right to a term of years belonging to his wife. (Anon. 9; 



43; Id. 104.) 



The tenant for years is entitled to the same . 

 the tenant for life (Co. I.itt., 41 b.1 ; and. like the tenant 

 for life, he is not entitled to commit waste by cutting 

 down timber, building houses, opening mines. Sec. (Co. 

 Litt.. B3 a.) He is also punishable for permissive waste, 

 and therefore bound to keep all houses and other build- 

 ings on the land in good and tenantable repair. (Co. I.itt.. 

 ."7 a If a woman tenant for years commits waste and 

 marries, the husband, having acquired the term by mar- 

 riage, becomes answerable for the waste. (Co. I. 

 A term of years may however, like an estate for li;> 

 granted without impeachment of waste, and such a clai 

 the grant is construed in the same manner with resj>. 

 both estates. When the determination of aterm is certain, as 

 when lands are let for 21 years, the tenant is not entitled 

 to embleraents, for it was' his own folly to sow where he 

 knew that he could not reap. But w'hen an estate for 

 years depends upon an uncertain event, as when it is made 

 determinable on the death of a particular person, the 

 tenant will be entitled to emblements in the same manner 

 as a tenant for life. (Co. Litt., 53 b. ; 16 East, 71.) 



Terms of years, being chattel interests, are subject to 

 crown debts while they continue in the possession of the 

 debtor, but not in the hands of a bond fidf purchaser tor 

 valuable consideration without notice, who has bought 

 before any execution awarded by the crown. (8 Rep., 

 171. They are in like manner assets in the hands of the 

 executor or administrator for the payment of specialty and 

 simple contract debts, but not after assignment by him tu 

 a purchaser for valuable consideration. 



Terms of years, not being estates of inheritance, cannot 

 be entailed, but they may be limited to any number of 

 persons in ttse successively for life, with limitations over. 

 so as to be inalienable for a life or lives in being, and 21 

 years after. [SETTLEMENT.] 



Terms of years, like life estates, may be merged either 

 by becoming vested in the owner of the freehold, or 

 ' by surrender to the person in remainder or reversion. 

 [SlKRGKR; SURRENDER.] But a mere interettt ter- 

 mini, not being an actual estate, cannot be n: 

 ! by surrender, though it may be extinguished by release. 

 ' (Cro. Jac., 619.} It was formerly doubted whether 

 one term could merge in another, but it is now settled 

 that when two terms, granted out of the sni 

 vest in the same person, there being no intervening 

 estate, the first merges in the term in reversion. (6 Madd., 

 j 66.) Where a term lias been created to answer trusts, a 

 court of equity will sometimes relieve against a merger of 

 it, so far as to make it answer the purposes of it* creation. 

 (3Swanst.. 603, 608.) 

 TERMES. [TramriNA.] 



TERMINAL. We cannot say that this term it used in 

 mathematics to the extent to which we shall cam' it : but 

 the very great convenience which would arise from an ex- 

 tension 01 its use is sufficient justification for coining a few 

 [ new meanings. Term is a word of geometry very little 

 i used, and signifying boundary or extremity ; the words 

 terminal value and terminal form are sometimes used to 

 v the last and most complete value or form. When 

 a finite expression, added to a certain number of terms of 

 I a series, makes up the equivalent of the expression from 

 which the series is deduced, or stands for all the subse- 

 1 quent terms of the scries, this finite expression might be 



