Entry - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition entry

Definition :

Entry, the depositing of a document in the proper office or place; actual entry on land is necessary to constitute a seisin in deed, and is necessary in certain cases, as, e.g., to perfect a common-law lease.

When a person without any right has taken posses-sion of land, the party entitled may make a formal but peaceable entry, which is quite an extra judicial and summary remedy, on such lands, declaring that thereby he takes possession, which notorious act of ownership is equivalent to a feudal investiture by the lord; or he may enter on any part of it in the same county, declaring it to be in the name of the whole; but if it lie indifferent counties, he must make different entries. This remedy by entry takes place in three only of the five species of ouster-viz., abatement, intrusion, and disseisin; for as in these the original entry of the wrongdoer was unlawful, they may therefore be remedied by the mere entry of him who has right. But upon a discontinuance or deforcement, the owner of the estate cannot enter, but is driven to his action; for herein the original entry being lawful, and thereby an apparent right of possession being gained, the law will not suffer that right to be overthrown by the mere act or entry of the claimant, 3 Bl. Com. 174.

An action must be brought within twelve (formerly twenty) years next after a right of entry first accrued, ten (formerly six) years being allowed after the determination of disabilities, provided it be not more than thirty (formerly forty) years in the whole. See (English) Real Property Limitation Act, 1874 (37 & 38 Vict. c. 57), repealing and replacing s. 2 of the Real Property Limitation Act, 1833 (3 & 4 Wm. 4, c. 27). All writs of entry and real actions by which lands might have been formerly recovered, except dower, dower unde nihil habet and quare impedit, are abolished, 3 & 4 Wm. 4, c. 27, s. 36. See DOWER.

By the (English) Real Property Act, 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 106), s. 6, reproduced by s. 4(2) of the (English) Law of Properties Act, 1925, the only rights of entry which are now capable of subsisting or being conveyed at law are rights of entry exercisable over or in respect of a legal term of years absolute or annexed for any purpose to a rent charge [(English) L.P. Act, 1925, s. 1(2)(e)]. Before 1925 a lessee had a right but no estate before entry, see now (English) L.P. Act, 1925, s. 149, which confers the estate in the lease without actual entry, but no lease at a rent can be made to commence later than 21 years from its date. See INTERESSEE TERMINI. A right of entry may be disposed of by deed.

In Scots law, the term refers to the acknowledgment of the title of the heir, etc., to be admitted by the superior.

As to a burglarious entry, see BURGLARY.

In commerce, the act of setting down in an account-book the particulars of business transacted. Book-keeping is performed either by single or double entry.

In relation to goods means an entry made in a bill of entry, shipping bill or bill of export and includes in the case of goods imported or to be exported by post, the entry referred to in s. 82 or the entry made under the regulations made under s. 84. [Customs Act, 1962 (52 of 1962), s. 2 (16)]

The word 'Entry' in the case of the imported goods meant an entry made in the Bill of Entry, Northern Plastics Ltd. v. Collector of Customs and Central Excise, AIR 1998 SC 2371 (2376): (1998) 6 SCC 443. [Customs Act, (52 of 1962), s. 111(m)]

The act, right, or privilege of entering real property, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 554.