Money land. In equity, land articled or devised to be sold, and turned into money, is considered as money, and money articled or bequeathed to be invested in land, has, inequity, many of the qualities of real estate, and is descendible and devisable as such according to the rules of inheritance in other cases, and this upon the ground that equity regards substance and not form, and will further the intention of parties.
By s. 75(5), (English) Settled Land Act, 1925, replacing Settled Land Act, 1882, s. 26 (5), capital money arising under that Act while remaining uninvested or unapplied and investments hereof are for all purposes of disposition, transmission and devolution to be treated as land and shall be held for and go to the same persons successively in the same manner and for and on the same estates, interests and trusts as the land wherefrom the money arises would, if not disposed of, have been held and have gone under the settlement, and see s. 78 (ibid.), as to personal estate settled by reference to capital money or on trusts corresponding with the settlement of the land. These provisions do not relate to or affect money arising on a trust for sale. [Settled Land Act, 1925, s. 75(5)]
Before 1926, money agreed or directed to be laid out in land, so fully became land as, 1stly, not to be personal assets; 2ndly, to be subject to the curtesy of the husband, and (under the Dower Act) the dower of the wife; 3rdly, to pass as land by will, if subject to the real use at the time the will was made; 4thly, not to pass as money by a general bequest to a legatee, but it would by a particular description, as so much money to be laid out in land,or by a bequest of all the testator's estate in law and equity. But equity would not consider money as land, unless the covenant or direction to lay it out inland be imperative. For the order of administration since 1925, see the (English) Administration of Estates Act, 1925, putting real and personal estate on the same footing.
The (English) Fines and Recoveries Act, 1833 (3 & 4 Wm. 4, c. 74), enacts (s. 71 not repealed except in regard to copyholds) that lands to be sold of any tenure where the money arising from the sale is subject to be invested in the purchase of lands to be settled, so that any person, if the lands were purchased, would have an estate-tail therein, and also money subject to be invested in the purchase of lands to be settled, so that any person, if the lands were purchased, would have an estate-tail therein, shall, for the purposes of the Act, be treated as the lands to be purchased, and be considered subject to the same estates as the lands to be purchased would have been actually subject to and now, by s. 130, (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, an equitable interest may be created in personalty as well as in real property. (Sale of Property Act, 1930)