Estate - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition estate

Definition :

Estate [fr. status, Lat.; etat, Fr.], the condition and circumstance in which an owner stands with regard to his property. The word is used in several senses and may denote either an estate in land; or an estate in property other than land; a legal estate or an equitable estate, land being an immovable is capable of being the subject of many estates existing concurrently with each other, thus the absolute ownership or fee simple may be leased and sub-leased, mortgaged and charged, each of the holders of these estates having a good legal or equitable estate at the same time; again, estates may be in possession, or in futuro; personal property may also be subject concurrently to a variety of ownerships, according to its nature; technically, in regard to land, the word is used to denote the quantity of interest, e.g., estate in fee simple, for life, for years, etc., in either legal or equitable estates. In practice its most important division is into real estate and personal estate, although the consequences of that division have lost much of their importance since 1925, when a new system of conveyancing was introduced by the Real Property legislation of that year. (English) L.P. Act, 1925, s. 1(1), declares that the only estates in land (see definition, s. 205 (ix.), ibid.) which are capable of subsisting or of being conveyed or created at law are: (a) an estate in fee simple absolute in possession; (b) a term of years absolute and certain rights conterminous with those estates (see LEGAL ESTATE). In regard to the law as it existed before 1926 and as it is still applicable subject to statutory enactment to equitable interests under sub-s. (3) of s. 1 of the (English) L.P. Act, 1925, see s. 4, (ibid.). Blackstone considered legal estates in a threefold view, thus:

(1) The quantity of interest or duration, divided into--

(A) Freeholds of inheritance, which are subdivided into--

(a) Absolute or fee simple.

(b) Limited fees; which are (a) qualified or base fees, and (b) fees conditional at the Common Law, afterwards called fees-tail in consequence of the Statute De Donis, which may be (i.) general or special, (ii.) male or female, (iii.) given in frank-marriage.

(B) Freeholds not of inheritance, sub-divided into--

(a) Conventional, or created by the act of the parties; they are (a) estates for one's own life, (b) estates pur autre vie, (c) general grant, without expressing any term at all.

(b) Legal, or created by operation of law; they are (a) tenancy in tail after possibility of issue extinct, (b) tenancy by the courtesy of England, (c) tenancy in dower.

(C) Estates less than freehold, sub-divided into--

(a) Estates for years.

(b) Estates at will.

(c) Estates at sufferance.

(D) Estates upon condition, sub-divided into--

(a) Estates upon condition implied.

(b) Estates uponcondition expressed, and these are either precedent, or subsequent; (a) precedent, which must be performed before an estate can vest or be enlarged; (b) subsequent, by the failure or non-performance of which an estate already vested is defeated; such are (i.) estates held in vadio, gage, or pledge, which are of two kinds: vivum vadium, living pledge or vifgage, and mortuum vadium, dead pledge or mortgage; (ii.) estates by statute mer-chant or statute staple; (iii.) estates by elegit.

(2) The time of enjoyment, either--

(A) In possession, or

(B) In expectancy, subdivided into--

(a) Reminders created by convention of parties, which are (a) vested, (b) contingent or executory, (c) cross.

(b) Reversions arising by operation of law.

(3) The number and connection of the tenants; either

(A) Severalty.

(B) Joint-tenancy.

(C) Coparceny.

(D) Tenancy in common.

(E) Entireties.

2. Bl. Com. cc. vii.-xii.

According to article 31-A(2)--

(a) the expression 'estate' shall, in relation to any local area, have the same meaning as that expression or its local equivalent has in the existing law relating to land tenures in force in that area and shall also include--

(i) any jagir, inam or muafi or other similar grant and in the State of Madras and Kerala, any Janmam right;

(ii) any land held under ryotwari settlement;

(iii) any land held or let for purposes of agriculture or for purposes ancillary thereto, including waste land, forest land, for pasture or sites of buildings and other structures occupied by cultivators of land, agricultural labourers and village artisans, Kannan Devan Hills Produce v. State of Kerala, (1972) 2 SCC 218: AIR 1972 SC 2301: (1973) 1 SCR 356.

The word 'estate' in s. 66 of the Abolition Act denotes only the estate governed by the Permanent Settlement Regulation and the Estates Land Act and not any other part of the impartible zamindari, Rajah Velugoti v. Rajah Velugoti Sarvagna, AIR 1970 SC 1795 (1804). [Tamil Nadu Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, (26 of 1948), s. 66]

S. 4(7) defines an estate as meaning 'land comprised in a State grant'. According to this definition, the properties in question would be 'estate' as defined in Article 31A of the Constitution, Thakur Amar Singh Ji v. State of Rajasthan, (1955) 2 SCR 303: AIR 1955 SC 504. [Jaipur State Grants Land Tenures Act, 1947 (1 of 1947), s. 4(7)]

The amount, degree, nature and quality of a person's interest in land or other property, Black's Law Dictionary, 7the Edn., p. 567.

Doth comprehend all that a man hath property or ownership in, and is divided into real and personal, Anon, (1684) Skin 193; Countess of Bridgewater v. Duke of Bolton, (1704) 6 Mad Rep 106; Barnes v. Patch, (1803) 8 Ves 604, see also Halsbury's Laws of England (39), para 302, p. 214.

In India, the State has the power to acquire any estate or any rights therein; however, if an estate is acquired by the State where any land comprised therein is under the personal cultivation of the owner, compensation has to be paid at a rate which shall not be less than the market value, Constitution of India, Art. 31A.

Includes, any jagir, inam or maufi, janman right, land held under ryotwari settlement, any land held or let for purposes of agriculture, waste land, forest land, land for pasture etc. rights in an estate include any rights in a proprietor, sub-proprietor, under proprietor, tenure-holder, or other intermediary, Constitution of India, Art. 31A(2).

Is the landed property, possession, capital, fortune, Webster American Dictionary, p. 414.

Is any species of property, real or personal, A Dictionary of Law, William, C. Anderson, 1889, p. 414.

Is the degree, nature, extent and quality of interest or ownership that one has in land, Webster American Dictionary, p. 497.

In U.K. every subject has right against unlawful deprivation of his property in his lands and goods; the private estate of a person can be taken by the State only by the consent of the owner or under the authority of Parliament, Commentary on the Constitution of India, Durga Das Basu, 6th Edn., Vol. D, p. 291.

Means 'An estate in the land is a time in the land, or land for a time', Walsingbem's case, (1573) 2 plowd 547.

Means was 'the immediate reversion to the tenants' leases, then a freeholder who had taken a surrender of the residue of an intermediate lease might be required to sell the nominated purchaser his entire freehold, Kensington Heights Commercial Co. Ltd. v. Campden Hill Developments Ltd., (2007) All ER 751 (CA): (2007) EWCA Civ 245.