Skip to content


Settled Land - Law Dictionary Search Results

Home Dictionary Name: settled land

Settled land

Settled land. For the purposes of the (English) Settled Land Acts, 1882-1890, 'settled land' meant land, and any estate and interest therein, which was the subject of a settlement; and 'settlement' meant any instrument, or any number of instruments, under which any land, or any estate or interest in land, 'stands for the time being limited to or in trust for any persons by way of succession' (Settled Land Act, 1882, s. 2) (see infra for the statutory definitions in the Settled Land Act, 1925, which has repealed the S.L. Acts, 1882-1890). Where the settlement consists of more instruments than one it is commonly called a 'compound settlement,' though this term is not defined in the Acts themselves; as to compound settlements, see Re Du Cane & Nettlefold, (1898) 2 Ch 96; Re Munday & Roper, (1899) 1Ch 275; Re Lord Wimborne & Browne (1904) 1 Ch 537; Wolstenholme & Cherry, Conveyancing, etc., Acts.Prior to 1856 settled estates could not be sold or leased except under the authority of some po...


Tail

Tail [fr. tailler, Fr., to prune]. An estate-tail was formerly a freehold of inheritance and is now an equitable interest which may be created after 1925 in respect of personalty as well as realty by way of trust and which (if not barred or disposed of by will after 1925) will devolve inequity on the person who would have taken realty as heir of the body or as tenant by the curtesy if the Law of Property Act, 1925, had not been passed [s. 130 (4) (ibid.)]The limitation of an estate so that it can be inherited only by the fee owner's issue or class of issue, Black's Law dictionary 7th Edn., p. 1466.An estate-tail in land now constitutes a settlement. [(English) Settled Land Act, 1925, s. 1]With this and other statutory modifications under the (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, the rules relating to this form of estate are still applicable (a) in the investigation of all titles to land in existence on the 31st December, 1925; (b) in the construction of equitable interests into which th...


Marriage settlement

Marriage settlement, an arrangement made before marriage, and in consideration of it (the highest consideration known to the law), whereby real or personal property is settled for the benefit of the husband and wife and the issue of the marriage. There is an express saving for such a settlement in s. 19 of the (English) Married Women's Property Act, 1882, and see the (English) Married Women's Property Act, 1907 (7 Edw. 7, c. 1), invalidating a settlement made by a female infant unless confirmed after attaining 21, but without prejudice to settlements under the Infants Settlement Act, 1855 (see post, MARRIED WOMEN'S PROPERTY).Although the policy of the land legislation of 1924 was to assimilate the law of real property to that of personalty as far as possible, marriage settlements of land (not being effected by way of trust for sale), and if providing for infant or for a succession of interests in land or charging land (but in this case subject to the (English) Law of Property Amendment...


Money land

Money land. In equity, land articled or devised to be sold, and turned into money, is considered as money, and money articled or bequeathed to be invested in land, has, inequity, many of the qualities of real estate, and is descendible and devisable as such according to the rules of inheritance in other cases, and this upon the ground that equity regards substance and not form, and will further the intention of parties.By s. 75(5), (English) Settled Land Act, 1925, replacing Settled Land Act, 1882, s. 26 (5), capital money arising under that Act while remaining uninvested or unapplied and investments hereof are for all purposes of disposition, transmission and devolution to be treated as land and shall be held for and go to the same persons successively in the same manner and for and on the same estates, interests and trusts as the land wherefrom the money arises would, if not disposed of, have been held and have gone under the settlement, and see s. 78 (ibid.), as to personal estate s...


Trust for sale

Trust for sale. Trusts for sale of land were commonly crated in settlements and well-drawn wills. The effect was to convert realty into personalty so that the proceeds devolved upon the beneficiaries as personalty unless they elected to take the property as realty (see CONVERSION), except that upon a lapse of the devise of realty in the testator's lifetime the property resulted to the heir-at-law, Ackroyd v. Smithson, (1780) 1 Bro CC 503. Another and more practical consequence was that the whole estate was vested as a rule in the trustees so that with or without consent of any other person as directed by the donor or testator they could vest the whole estate in a purchaser without his seeing to the application of the purchase money (Trustee Act, 1893, s. 14), and without participation of beneficiaries whose consent was not required, thus providing an expedient, which, together with the Settled Land Acts and other statutes giving analogous powers to mortgagees, personal representatives ...


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...


Vesting instrument

Vesting instrument, a deed, order of Court, or assent, constituting the evidence under the (English) Settled Land Act, 1925, of the title of a tenant for life or statutory owner to the legal estate in settled property as estate owner thereof. This evidence is essential for the settlement of a legal estate in land otherwise than by way of trust for sale (Settled Land Act, 1925, s. 4). The trusts are (after 1925) to be declared by a separate instrument called the Trust Instrument (see that title). Sec. 5 of the Act provides that the principal vesting deed must state:(a) a description of the settled land;(b) that the settled land is vested in the person or persons to or in whom it is conveyed or declared to be vested upon the trusts from time to time affecting the settled land;(c) the names of the trustees of the settlement;(d) any powers which are additional or larger than the statutory powers and are exercisable as statutory powers under the Act;(e) the name of the person entitled under...


Undivided shares in land

Undivided shares in land. Before 1926 a legal estate in undivided shares in land was held by joint tenants, tenants in common, coparceners, and by husband and wife as tenants by entireties (see those titles), but now by the Law of Property Act, 1925, s. 1 (6), a legal estate is not capable of subsisting or of being created in an undivided share inland, and by the same s. 1 (3) and ss. 34 (4), 205, and 1st Sch., Part IV., and cf. TRUST FOR SALE, such shares are to take effect as equitable interests only in the net proceeds of sale and of the rents and profits of the entirety of the land until sale, while the legal estate must be held by trustees for sale of the entire undivided property. It should be noticed that shares only are affected by these provisions. The legal estate in the joint tenancy in the entirety of the trustees for sale persists ex necessitate rei, and this is given effect to by s. 36, as amended, prohibiting severance of the legal estate in joint tenancy and providing f...


Improvement of land

Improvement of land. The (English) Improvement of Land Acts, 1864 and 1899 (27 & 28 Vict. c. 114, and 62 & 63 Vict. c. 46), enumerate a number of 'im-provements' such as the following: (1) Drainage; (2) Irrigation and Warping; (3) Embanking from the sea, etc.; (4) Inclosing, and redivision of fields; (5) Reclamation; (6) Making roads, tramways, railways, and canals; (7) Clearing; (8) Erection and improvement of cottage and farm buildings; (9) Planting for shelter; (10) Construction of mills, etc.; (11) Construction of landing-places; and allowed tenants for life to charge the cost of such improvements upon the fee of a settled estate with the sanction of the In closure Commissioners, after notice to persons in remainder, and certain specifications and surveys;-the sanction of the Commissioners to be given 'if they found (s. 25) that the improvements would effect a permanent increase of the yearly vale of the lands proposed to be improved.' The Acts have been amended by the (English) Ag...


Infant

Infant [fr. infans, Lat., one who cannot speak], a person under twenty-one years of age, whose acts are in many cases either void or voidable. See AGE.At Common Law, the contracts of infants are divided into three classes: 1st. Those which are absolutely void; such as are positively injurious to the interests of the infant, and can only operate to his prejudice; as a surety-bond, or a release to his guardian.2nd. Those which are only voidable: such as are beneficial to him, which he may affirm or avoid when he comes of age; as a conveyance of lands, a promissory note, an account stated.3rd. Those which are binding ab initio and need on ratification: such as contracts for the public service, Articles of apprenticeship [see Green v. Thompson, (1899) 2 QB 1], executed contracts of marriage, representative acts as executor or trustee, contracts for necessaries. In an action brought for the price of goods, if the defendant pleads infancy, the onus is on the plaintiff to prove that the goods...


  • << Prev.

Sign-up to get more results

Unlock complete result pages and premium legal research features.

Start Free Trial

Save Judgments// Add Notes // Store Search Result sets // Organize Client Files //