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Fees Doctrine - Law Dictionary Search Results

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Merger

Merger [fr. mergo, Lat., to sink], an annihilation, by act of law, of a particular in an expectant estate consequent upon their union in the same person without an intervening estate in another person--thus accelerating into possession the expectant which swallows up the particular estate. It is the drowning of one estate in another, and differs from suspension, which is but a partial extinguishment for a time; while extinguishment, properly so termed, is the destruction of a collateral thing in the subject itself out of which it is derived. 'In order that there may be a merger, the two estates which are supposed to coalesce must be vested in the same person at the same time and in the same right' [Re Radcliffe, (1892) 1 Ch 231, per Lindley, LJ]. An estate tail, however is an exception to the rule; for a man may have in his own right both an estate tail and a reversion in fee; and the estate tail, though a less estate, will not merge in the fee, 2 Bl. Com. 177.The doctrine of merger pr...


Recovery

Recovery, the obtaining a thing by judgment or trial.The regaining or restoration of something lost or taken away, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1280.A true recovery is an actual or real recovery of anything, or the value thereof, by judgment; as if a man sue for any land or other thing movable or immovable, and gain a verdict or judgment.A feigned recovery. An abolished common assurance by matter of record, in fraud of the statute De Donis, whereby a tenant-in-tail in possession enlarged his estate-tail into a fee-simple and so barred the entail, and all remainders and reversions expectant there-on, with all conditions and collateral limitations annexed to them, and subsequent charges sub-ordinate to the entail. But incumbrances on the estate-tail equally affected such fee-simple, and any estate or interest prior to the entail remained undisturbed.This assurance consisted of two parts: (1) The recovery itself, which was a fictitious rea action in the Court of Common Pleas, carr...


private attorney general doctrine

private attorney general doctrine : an equitable doctrine allowing the recovery of attorney's fees to a party whose suit has benefited a large number of people, requires private enforcement, and is of societal importance ...


Contingent remainder

Contingent remainder, a remainder limited so as to depend on an event or condition which may never happen or be performed, or which may not happen or be performed till after the determination of the preceding estate, Fearne, Cont. Remainders.The legal estate in contingent remainders has been abolished by the Law of Property Act, 1925, s. 1. S. 4, whoever, provides that they can take effect as equitable interests, and any instrument creating a contingent remainder has become a settlement under s. 1 (ii) of the (English) S.L. Act, 1925. See SETTLED LAND.In Smith d. Dormer v. Parkhurst, (1740) 18 Vin. Abr. 413; 6 Bro. Cas. Par. 351, the Court held that, in every case where an estate is given to A. for life, the grantor has an interest remaining in him to enter upon the estate, if it should determine by any act of the tenant amounting to a forfeiture; that this right is inherent in the grantor, from the nature of the estate itself, and may be conveyed to trustees; and that, when it is conv...


Uses

Uses (History). A use is the intention or purpose, express or implied, upon which property is to be held. The Common Law treated the actual possessor for all purposes as the owner of the property. It was not difficult to find him out, since the possession of his estate was conferred upon him by a formal and notorious ceremony, technically called livery of seisin, which was performed openly and in the presence of the people of the locality.It soon became evident that the simple rules of the Common Law were stumbling-blocks to the complicated wants of an enterprising people.Hence ingenuity was sharpened to hit upon a device which should set at nought the rigidity of existing law and formalities.A system was found by the monastic jurists upon a model furnished by the Civil Law, which, by a nice adaptation, evaded, without overturning, the Common Law. Two methods of transferring realty began to co-exist in this country-the ancient Common Law system, and the later invention, which is denomi...


Remainder

Remainder [fr. remanentia, Lat.], that expectant portion, remnant, or residue of interest which, on the creation of a particular estate, is at the same time limited over to another, who is to enjoy it after the determination of such particular estate.After 1925 remainders can operate only as equitable interests, and in that manner they can be created in respect of personality as well as realty. The follow-ing explanation of legal remainders has been retained as relating to titles to land existing before 1926, and see (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, s. 4, as to the construction of equitable interests.A remainder may be limited in all freehold estates, but not strictly and technically in chattels real and personal, although these may be limited over after a previous limitation or a partial interest in them. It may be limited by way of use (which is, in practice, the usual method), as well as by a conveyance deriving its effect from the Common Law.In the same land there may at the sa...


Shelley's case, Rule in

Shelley's case, Rule in. intimately connected with the quantity of estate which a tenant may hold in realty, is the antique feudal doctrine generally known as the rule in Shelley's Case, which is reported by Lord Coke in 1 Rep. 93 b (23 Eliz.in C.B.), and elaborately examined by Lord Macnaghten in Van Grutten v. Foxwell, 1897 AC 658.The rule has been abolished by the (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, s. 131, in the construction of all instruments coming into operation after 1925; but the rule governs the construction of all instruments which have come into operation before the 1st January, 1926.The rule may be described thus: Where a life free-hold, either legal or equitable in realty (whether of freehold or copyhold tenure), is limited by any assurance to a person, and by the same assurance the inheritance of the same quality, i.e., either legal or equitable, is limited by way of remainder (with or without the interposition of any other estate) to his heirs or the heirs of his body...


Hotchpot

Hotchpot [fr. hache en poche, Fr., a confused mingling of diverse things], a blending or mixing of lands and chattels, answering in some respects to the collatio bonorum of the Civil Law. 'And it seemeth that this word [hotchpots] is in English a pudding'; see Co. Litt. 177 a.The blending of items of property to secure equality of division, esp. as practised is case in which advancements of an intestate's property must be made upto estate by a contribution or by an accounting, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn.As to lands, it only applied to such as were given in frank-marriage, thus: if one daughter have an estate given with her in frank-marriage by her ancestor, then, if lands descend from the same ancestor to her and her sister in fee-simple (not in fee-tail), she or her heirs shall have no share in them unless they will agree to divide the lands so given in frank-marriage, in equal proportions with the rest of the lands descending--i.e., bringing her lands so given into hotchpots.As ...


Priority

Priority, an antiquity of tenure in comparison with another less ancient; also that which is before another in order of time.As to priority among creditors, see (English) Admin-istration of Estates Act, 1869, reproduced by ss. 32 to 34, (English) Administration of Estates Act, 1925, and the First Sch., which provides that in the administration of the estate of any person who shall die on or after 1st January, 1870, no debt or liability of such person shall be entitled to any priority or preference by reason merely that the same is secured by or arises under a bond, deed, or other instrument under seal, or is otherwise made or constituted a specialty debt.The priority in legal and equitable assignments of equitable choses in action are determined accord-ing to the date of receipt of notice by the persons who are for the time being owners of the legal interest in the property assigned. Before 1926 the notice might be verbal; after 1926 it must, for the purposes of establishing priority a...


title

title [Anglo-French, inscription, legal right, from Old French, from Latin titulum inscription, chapter heading, part of the law that sanctions an action] 1 a : the means or right by which one owns or possesses property ;broadly : the quality of ownership as determined by a body of facts and events after-acquired title : title that vests automatically in a grantee when acquired by a grantor who purported to sell the property before acquiring title ;also : a doctrine that requires such vesting compare estoppel by deed at estoppel NOTE: The doctrine of after-acquired title generally does not apply when the grantor receives title by quitclaim deed; to vest title in the grantee the deed must include words expressing such an intention. clear title : title that exists free of claims or encumbrances on the property [had clear title to the farm] ;broadly : marketable title in this entry equitable title : title vested in one who is considered by the application of equitable principl...


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