JOI 



JOI 



a permanent fund, out of which to answer 

 all obligations, because no individual 

 is answerable personally. Corporations 

 must be confined only, therefore, to those 

 cases in which dealings are simple, and 

 in which a permanent fund can be kept 

 together. Partnerships depend alto- 

 gether upon individual responsibility, and 

 can therefore not safely be composed of 

 many persons; for in suing and being 

 sued, all the partners must be named. 

 This inconvenience has been attempted 

 to be remedied by making acts of Parlia- 

 ment, to enable certain fire companies, 

 the Albion, Globe, &c. to sue and be 

 sued by their chief clerk, without mak- 

 ing them corporations: yet, as they 

 stipulate not to be answerable beyond 

 their individual shares, it will be found 

 difficult, if not impossible, to levy exe- 

 cution upon them, and the party must 

 still sue out one or two thousand writs of 

 fieri facias, for a debt of 201. Such is 

 the consequence of interfering with the 

 established common law. The result will 

 be found to be, that, in all such cases, 

 the public deal with a body of people 

 upon honour and good faith only, and 

 each individual embarks all his fortune 

 in such concerns, and, being once en- 

 gaged in them, continues still liable. 

 "Whether it \rould be feasible to give 

 further facility to the erecting of trad- 

 ing corporations, considering the advan- 

 tages of some such institutions, is there- 

 fore a question of great difficulty, both 

 in political economy and legislation. 



JOIKT tenants, are those that come 

 to, and hold lands or tenements by one 

 title pro indiviso, or without partition. 

 These are distinguished from sole or se- 

 veral tenants, from parceners, and from 

 tenants in common ; and they must joint- 

 ly implead, and jointly be impleaded by 

 others, which properly is common be- 

 tween them and coparceners ; but joint 

 tenants have a sole quality of survivor- 

 ship, which coparceners have not; for 

 if there be two or three joint tenants, and 

 one hath issue and dies, then he or those 

 joint tenants that survive shall have the 

 whole by survivorship. The creation of an 

 estate in joint tenancy depends on the 

 wording of the deed or devise, by which 

 tenant claims title, and cannot arise by 

 act of law. If any estate be given to a plu- 

 rality of persons, without adding any re- 

 strictive, exclusive, or explanatory words, 

 as if an estate be granted to A and B, 

 and their heirs, this makes them immedi- 

 ately joint tenants in fee of the lands. If 

 there be two joint tenants, and one release 



the other, this passes a fee without the 

 word heirs, because it refers to the whole 

 fee, which they jointly took, and are pos- 

 sessed of by force of the first conveyance; 

 but the tenants in common cannot release 

 each other, for a release supposes the 

 party to have the thing in demand : but 

 tenants in common have several distinct 

 freeholds, which they cannot transfer 

 otherwise than as persons who are sole 

 seized. Although joint tenants art- seized 

 permie et per tout, yet to divers purposes 

 each of them hath but a right to a moiety ; 

 as, to enfeoflf, give or demise, or to forfeit 

 or lose by default in a praecipe ; and 

 therefore, where there are two or more 

 joint tenants, and they all join in a feoff- 

 ment, each of them in judgment gives 

 but his part. 



At common law, joint tenants in com- 

 mon were not compellable to make par- 

 tition ; except by the custom of some 

 cities and boroughs. But now joint-ten- 

 ants may make partition ; the one party 

 may compel the other to make partition, 

 which must be by deed : that is to say, 

 all the parties must by deed actually con- 

 vey and assure to each other the several 

 estates, which they are to take and enjoy 

 severally and separately. Joint tenants 

 being seized per mie et per tout, and deriv- 

 ing by one and the same title, must joint- 

 ly implead, and be jointly impleaded 

 with others. If one joint-tenant refuse to 

 join in an action, he may be summoned 

 and severed; but if the person severed 

 die, the writ abates in real actions, but not 

 in personal and mixed actions. 



JOINTURE, a jointure, strictly speak- 

 ing, signifies a joint estate, limited to both 

 husband and wife ; but in common ac- 

 ceptation, it extends also to a sole estate, 

 Jimited to the wife only, and may be thus 

 defined, viz. a competent livelihood for 

 the wife of freehold of lands and tene- 

 ments, to take effect, in profit or posses- 

 sion, presently after the death of the hus- 

 band ; for the life of the wife at least. By 

 the statute of 27 Henry VIII. c. 10. if a 

 jointure be made to the wife, it is a bar of 

 her dower, so as she shall not have both 

 jointure and dower. And to the making 

 of a perfect jointure within that statute, 

 six things are necessary to be observed. 

 1. Her jointure is to take effect presently 

 after her husband's decease. 2. It must 

 be for the term of her own life, or great- 

 er estate. 3. It should be made to herself. 

 4. It must be made in satisfaction of her 

 whole dower, and not of part of her dow- 

 er. 5. It must be either expressed or 

 averred to be in satisfaction of her dower. 



