Title, means the union of all elements (as ownership possession, and custody) constituting the legal right to control and dispose of property; the legal link between a person who owns property and the property itself, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1493.
Title: 1, a general head, comprising particulars, as in a book; 2, an appellation of honour or dignity; 3, the means whereby the owner of lands has the just possession of his property--titulus est justa causa pos sidendi id quod nostrum est: Co. Litt. 345b.
1. The union of all elements (as ownership, possession, and custody) constituting the legal right to central and dispose of property; the
2. Legal evidence of a person's ownership rights in property; an chastenment (such as a deed) that constitute such evidence
3. The heading of a statute or other legal document, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn.
There are several stages and degrees requisite to form a complete title to lands and tenements.
1. The lowest and most imperfect degree of title consists in the mere naked possession, or actual occupation of the estate, without any apparent right or any shadow of pretence of right to hold and continue such possession.
2. The next step to a good and perfect title is the right of possession, which may reside in one man, while the actual possession is not in himself but in another.
3. The mere right of property, the jus proprieatis, without either possession or even the right of possession. This is frequently styled the mere right, jus merum; and the estate of the owner is in such cases said to be totally divested and put to a right.
4. A complete legal title. This exists where the right of possession is joined with the right of property. See 2 Bl. Com. 196.
The principal circumstances to be attended to in drawing conclusions as to title are--
1. That there be a deduction of title to the legal estate for a period of thirty years, unless an earlier title than forty years was required under the Vendor and Purchaser Act, 1874, or the Conveyancing Acts, 1881 and 1882, as in the case of leaseholds, advowsons, titles, etc. [(English) Law of Property Act, 1925, s. 44, and see ss. 45 et seq.]
2. That the legal estate can be obtained free from any equities affecting it. A stipulation by the vendor that the purchaser of a legal estate shall accept a title made with the concurrence of an equitable beneficiary if title can be made free from equities under a trust for sale or under the Law of Property Act, 1925, or any other statute is void (L.P. Act, 1925), s. 42, and see s. 43 as to registered interests;
3. That all the particular estates either were determined before 1926, or if no vesting deed, trust for sale, probate or grant of administration, vesting or order has been executed or granted or made since 1925, enabling the vendor to deal with the whole legal estate, so that the whole estate can be conveyed under the (English) L.P. Act, 1925, to the purchaser or his trustee free from equitable interests unless the purchaser agrees to accept it subject to a family charge. (see Law of Property Amendment Act, 1926)
4. That no reversion or remainder is outstanding in the Crown, or in any stranger; and
5. That there are no registered incumbrances which the purchaser cannot procure either to be extinguished or assigned (see s. 43, L.P. Act, 1925, as to purchaser's rights of rescission); and if there has been no dealing with the legal estate since 1925, that the purchaser can obtain the estate free from all equities which would have been registrable if they had been created or conveyed after 1925, and of which he has notice. See LAND CHARGES.
There are at least three species of doubtful titles: (1) where the title is doubtful by reason of some uncertainty in the law itself; (2) where the doubt is as to the application of some settled principle or rule of law; and (3) where a matter of fact upon which a title depends is either not in its nature capable of satisfactory proof, or, being capable of such proof, is yet not satisfactorily proved.
There is no defect which more frequently renders it impossible for a person who has a good title to prove it, and enables a party who has a bad title fradulently to exhibit a colourable ownership, than the want of evidence of the identity of the parcels.
A good title to a freehold or leasehold estate is made whenever it appears that the legal estate in the property contracted for will become vested in the purchaser free from any equity which would be capable of being over-reached by a disposition in trust for sale made in pursuance of the (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, s. 2 (2), as amended by the amending Act of 1926 (see K. & E., Vol. I., Part I. p. 235), and free from all incumbrances not specially provided for in the contract; see ABSTRACT and CONDITIONS OF SALE, and consult Dart or Williams on Vendors and Purchasers.
See REAL REPRESENTATIVE and REGISTRATION.
The title to things personal may be acquired by: (1) Occupancy. (2) Invention. (3) Prerogative. (4) Forfeiture. (5) Custom. (6) Succession. (7) Marriage. (8) Judgment. (9) Gift or grant. (1) Contract. (11) Bankruptcy. (12) Will. (13) Administration. (14) Statute.
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