Heir Apparent - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: heir apparent Page: 2Possession
Possession, correctly understood, means effective physical control or occupation. The word 'possession' is sometimes used inaccurately as synonymous with the right to possess, Gurucharan Singh v. Kamla Singh, (1976) 2 SCC 152.Possession, does not imply mere acts of the user, or of occupation alone, but the occupation must be with the intention of exercising some claim or right in respect of the property occupied. A person who has no claim to the property but succeeds by show of force in acquiring physical control over the same cannot be treated to be in its possession, notwith-standing his physical control over it, Ram Krishna v. Bhagwan Baksh Singh, (1961) All LJ 301.Possession, implies dominion and control and the consciousness in the mind of the person having dominion that he has it and can exercise it, Chhedi Ram v. Mahngoo Tiwari, 1969 All WR (HC) 230.Possession, in common parlance denoted to occupy, to have or hold as owner, to obtain, to maintain, Krishna Prasad Jaiswal v. Kanti...
Dower
Dower [fr. dos, dotis, Lat., a marriage gift; dotare dower, Fr., endow, to furnish with a marriage portion. Dotarium, M. Lat., dotaire, Prov.; douaire, Fr.; a dowry of marriage provision; douairiere, a widow in possession of her portion, a dowager], the right which a wife has in the third part of the lands and tenements of which her husband dies possessed in fee-simple, fee-tail general, or as heir in special tail, which she holds from and after his decease, in severalty by metes and bounds, for her life, whether she have issue by her husband or not, and of what age soever she may be at her husband's decease, provided she be past the age of nine years.The legal estate in dower (being an estate for life) has been abolished and converted into an equitable interest (ibid.), (English) L.P. Act, 1925, s. 1; it can only arise in respect of deaths after 1925 in case the deceased husband was a lunatic or defective on January 1st, 1925, and died without regaining testamentary capacity or before...
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...
Special occupancy
Special occupancy. Where an estate was before 1926 granted to a man and his heirs during the life of cestui que vie, and the grantee dies before 1926 without alienation, and while the life for which he held continued, the heir would succeed, and he was called a special occupant. See Wills Act, 1837 (7 Wm. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 26), ss. 3, 6; but in case of death of the tenant pur autre vie, after 1925, the equitable interest apparently devolves on the special personal representatives of the deceased, and if he dies intestate, upon trust for sale for the benefit of persons entitled under the Administration of Estates Act, 1925 (see s. 45), the old rules of descent having been abolished (see DESCENT; HEIR), and se also in the case of a limitation or trust under an instrument coming into operation after 1925 for a man and his heirs during the life of another, SHELLEY'S CASE; AUTRE VIE...
Heirloom
Heirloom [fr. h'res, Lat., heir, and geloma, Sax., goods], personal chattels, such as charters, deeds, and evidences of title, coat armor set up in a church, or a tombstone erected there, which go to the heir, together with the inheritance. The ancient jewels of the Crown are heirlooms. Heirlooms strictly so called are now rarely met with. See Williams on personal Property; Co. Litt. 18b, 185b; 2 Bl. Com. 428.The term 'heirlooms' is often applied in practice to the case where certain chattels--for example, pictures, plate, or furniture--are directed by will or settlement to follow the limitations thereby made of some family mansion or estate. But the word is not then employed in its strict and proper sense, nor is the disposition itself beyond a certain point effectual; for the Articles will, in such case, belong absolutely to the first person who, under the limitations of the settlement, becomes entitled to the real estate for a vested estate of inheritance; see Portman v. Viscount Po...
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...
Joint-tenancy
Joint-tenancy. This tenancy is created where the same interest in real or personal property is, by the act of the party, passed by the same matter of conveyance or claim in solido, and not as merchan-dise, or for purposes of speculation, to two or more persons in the same right, either simply, or by construction or operation of law jointly, with a jus accrescendi, that is, a gradual concentration of property from more to fewer, by the accession of the part of him or them that die to the survivors or survivor, till it passes to a single hand, and the joint-tenancy ceases.Anciently, joint-tenancy was favoured because it did not induce fractions of estates, and returning to early principles the (English) Land Legislation of 1925 has employed the tenure generally as the machinery by which legal estate may in such cases always be in some person, called the estate owner, who is competent to give a title to the whole estate without the concurrence of other parties. that legal estate has been ...
Presumptive title
Presumptive title. A barely presumptive title, which is of the very lowest order, arises out of the mere occupation or simple possession of property (jus possessionis, Lat.), without any apparent right, or any pretence of right, to hold and continue such possession. This may happen when one man disseises another; or where after the death of the ancestor, and before the entry of the heir, a stranger abates and holds out the heir. The law assumes that the actual occupant of land has the fee-simple in it, unless there be evidence rebutting such pre-sumption, or his possession be properly explained and shown to be consonant with the right of the true proprietor of the reversionary fee. Such a presumption, in the absence of any satisfactory proof to the contrary, will sustain an action for a tresspass by a wrongdoer, and will indeed be strengthened, by lapse of time, into a title complete and indefeasible.This assumption is based on the well-known feudal maxim that seisin must be the basis ...
Wills
Wills. A will is the valid disposition by a living person, to take effect after his death, of his disposable property. ''But in law ultima voluntas in scriptis is used, where lands or tenements are devised, and testamentum, when it concerneth chattels': Co. Litt. 111 a.Depository of Will of Living Person.-By the (English) Jud. Act, 1925, s. 172, replacing s. 91 of the Court of Probate Act, 1857:-There shall, under the control and direction of the High Court, be provided safe and convenient depositories for the custody of the wills of living persons, and any person may deposit his will therein.And see (English) Administration of Justice Act, 1928 (18 & 19 Geo. 5, c. 26), s. 11, as to deposit of wills under control of the High Court.Law before 1838.-The right of testamentary aliena-tion of lands is a matter depending on Act of Parliament. Before 32 Hen. 8, c. 1, a will could not be made of land, and before the Statute of Frauds a will (see NUNCUPATIVE WILL) could be made by word of mouth...
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...
- << Prev.
- Next >>