Escheat - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: escheatEscheat
Escheat [eschet or echet, formed from the word eschoir or echoir, Fr., to happen], a species of reversion; it is a fruit of seigniory, the Crown or lord of the fee, from whom or from whose ancestor the estate was originally derived, taking it as ultimus h'res upon the failure, natural or legal, of the intestate tenant's family.Escheat to the Crown, the Duchy of Lancaster, the Duke of Cornwall and to mesne lords has been abolished by (English) Administration of Estates Act, 1925, s. 45(1). The right of the Crown to 'bona vacantia' now includes real property under (English) A.E. Act, 1925, s. 46. See BONA VACAN-TIA.The title of the Crown was ascertained by inquiry regulated by rules under the (English) Escheat Procedure Act, 1887 (50 & 51 Vict. c. 53), which repealed, as practically inoperative, the numerous statutes from 29 Edw. 1, by which officers called 'escheators' were authorized to hold such inquiries.If differed from a forfeiture [now abolished for treason or felony by the (Engli...
escheat
escheat [Anglo-French eschete reversion of property, from Old French escheoite accession, inheritance, from feminine past participle of escheoir to fall (to), befall, ultimately from Latin ex- out + cadere to fall] 1 : escheated property 2 : the reversion of property to the state upon the death of the owner when there are no heirs vt : to cause to revert by escheat vi : to revert by escheat es·cheat·able adj ...
Cheaters or escheators
Cheaters or escheators, were officers appointed to look after the king's escheats, a duty which gave them great opportunities of fraud and oppression, and in consequence many complaints were made of their misconduct. Hence it seems that a cheater came to signify a fraudulent person, and thence the verb to cheat was derived, Wedgw....
Single escheat
Single escheat, when all a person's moveables fall to the Crown, as a casualty, because of his being declared rebel. See FORFEITURE....
Escheator
An officer whose duty it is to observe what escheats have taken place and to take charge of them...
Fee-simple
Fee-simple, a freehold estate of inheritance, absolute and unqualified. It stands at the head of estates as the highest in dignity and the most ample in extent; since every other kind of estate is derivable there out, and mergeable therein, for omne majus continet in se minus. It may be enjoyed not only in land, but also in advowsons, commons, estovers, and other hereditaments as well as in personalty, as an annuity or dignity, and also in an upper chamber, though the lower buildings and soil belong to another.Littleton, in his Tenures (1. i., c. 1, s. 1), gives a description of this estate, which appears to have been adopted by every subsequent writer. His language is this:-A person who holds 'in fee-simple is he which hath lands or tenements to hold to him and his heirs for ever. And it is called in Latin feodum simplex, for feodum is the same that inheritance is, and simplex is as much as to say lawful or pure. And so feodum simplex signifies a lawful or pure inheritance. For if a m...
Bastard
Bastard [fornication], one born not of lawful marriage. [(English) Age of Marriage Act, 1929 (19 & 20 Geo. 5, c. 36)]The civil and canon laws did not allow a child to remain a bastard if the parents afterwards intermarried, but a proposal by the bishops to assimilate the law of England to the canon law in this respect was rejected by Parliament in 1235. See MERTON, STATUTE OF. The law of England remained thus for nearly 700 years, until the Legitimacy Act, 1926 (16 & 17 Geo. 5, c. 60), legitimated a child born out of wedlock upon the subsequent marriage of parents if they were domiciled in England or Wales at the date of marriage. See LEGITIMATION. In Scotland, however, and in most other Christian countries, including most, if not all, of the British Dominions, and most, if not all, of the United States of America, legitimation of the children has always followed the intermarriage of the parents.The mother of a bastard cannot validly contract with another person for the transfer to tha...
Bona vacantia
Bona vacantia, things found without any apparent owner which belong to the first occupant or finder, unless they be whale or sturgeon, wreck, treasure trove, waifs or estrays (see those titles), which belong to the Crown by virtue of its prerogative. So personal property held on trusts which have failed, or held in trust for a corporation which has been dissolved, belongs to the Crown as bona vacantia; see Re Higginson, (1898) 1 QB 325, and cases there cited. By the (English) Companies Act, 1929, s. 296, the property of a dissolved company including property held on trust for it shall, subject to the provisions of the Act, become bona vacantia. Before the Act was passed freehold and leasehold property reverted to the grantor. Hastings Corporation v. Letton, (1908) 1 KB 378, s. 296 is not retrospective, Re Katherine Ltd., (1932) 1 Ch 70, and (1933) 2 Ch 29. As to the rights of the Crown, the Duchy of Lancaster or the Duke of Cornwall to bona vacantia, see (English) Administration of Est...
Escheator
Escheator [fr. escaetor, Lat.], an officer anciently appointed by the lord treasurer, etc., in every county, to make inquests of titles by escheat, which inquests were to be taken by good and lawful men of the county, impannelled by the sheriff, 4 Inst. 225. See ESCHEAT.A royal officer appointed to assess the value of property escheating to crown, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 564....
Gavelkind
Gavelkind. A mode or rule of descent by custom abolished by the Administration of Estates Act, 1925, s. 45(1)(a), in the case of all deaths after 1925 except in regard to entailed estates, and descent from a person of unsound mind, as provided by s. 51 (ibid.), and see (English) L.P. Act, 1922, 12th Sched. (1)(d), and Re Price, 1928 Ch 579. The word is derived from the Saxon word 'gafol,' or, as it is otherwise written, 'gavel,' which signifies 'rent' or a 'customary performance of husbandry works'; accordingly the land which yielded this kind of service, in contradistinction to knight-service land, was called 'GAVELKIND' that is 'land of the kind that yields rent.' Lambarde (Perambulations of Kent, Edn. 1656, p. 585) first advanced and promulgated this supposition, which does not seem to be sufficiently comprehensive since 'gavelkind' does not necessarily denote land subject to rent, in opposition to the opinion of Lord Coke, who traced the word to 'gave all kinde' 'for the custom giv...
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