Estate

ESTATE, the state or condition in which a man lives, now chiefly used poetically and in such phrases as "man's estate," or "of high estate" ; "state" has superseded most of the uses of the word except (I) in property, and (2) in constitutional law.

I.

In the law of property the word is employed in several senses. In the widest sense a man's estate comprises his entire belongings ; so much of it as consists of land and certain other interests asso ciated therewith is his "real estate" ; the rest is his "personal estate." The word is more particularly applied to interests in land, and in popular and general use "an estate" means the land itself. The strict technical meaning at common law of "an es tate" was a freehold in lands. "The first thing that the student has to do," says Joshua Williams (Law of Real Property), "is to get rid of the idea of absolute ownership. Such an idea is quite unknown to the English law. No man is in law the absolute owner of lands. He can only hold an estate in them." That is, the notion of tenure, of holding by a tenant from a lord, prevails. The last lord of all from whom all land was ultimately held was the king. Persons holding directly from the king and granting to others were the king's tenants in capite, and were the mesne lords of their tenants.

Legal estates in land were of three kinds : (I) Fees simple, under which the land on the death of the owner intestate de scended to his common law heir, and if he had no such heir escheated to the lord of whom it was held, who claimed on the ground that though he had no estate in the land himself, yet as the lord of whom it was held, he was entitled to it on the failure of the estate granted to the tenant in fee simple ; (2) fees tail, under which the land, on the death of the tenant in tail, descended to the heir of his body, whether he died intestate or not, and if he left no heir of the body the land reverted to the grantor who after grant ing the fee tail still was the owner in fee simple, in remainder of the land ; (3) life estate, which were of two kinds, estates for the life of the tenant and estates for the life or lives of some other person or persons (called estates pur autre vie) . The chief dis tinction was that an estate pur autre vie might survive the tenant, and then, unless it was limited to him and his heir, the land became ownerless till someone took possession of it (called the "general occupant").

All this has now, so far as England is concerned, been abolished by The Law of Property Act. Now, the only legal estate that can subsist in land is fee simple, and it is practically absolute owner ship since escheat and the other incidents of tenure including kin ship are abolished. Fee tail and life estates can subsist only as equitable interests, so equitable fee tail may be disposed of by the will of the tenant in tail.

Interests in land not of freehold were not regarded at common law as any part of the ownership, but merely as hirings of the land. They were divided into (i.) interests, a time certain (often called terms, the instruments creating them being termed leases or demises, and the interests leaseholds) ; (ii.) tenancies at will, that is, where lands or tenements are let by one man to another to have and to hold at the will of the lessor; (iii.) ten ancies at sufferance, where one comes into possession of land under a lawful title, and continues in possession after his title has determined.

Under the Law of Property Act, 1925, absolute terms are the only legal interests besides fees simple which can now subsist in lands. Accordingly the old common law as to personalty, which permitted only absolute ownership and hiring of goods, now applies to land.

(2) In constitutional law an estate is an order or class having a definite share as such in the body politic, and participating either directly or by its representatives in the Government. The system of representation by estates took its rise in western Europe during the 13th century, at a time when the feudal system was being broken up through various causes, notably the growing wealth and power of the towns. In the feudal council the clergy and the territorial nobles had alone had a voice; but the 13th century, to quote Stubbs, "turns the feudal council into an assem bly of estates, and draws the constitution of the third estate from the ancient local machinery which it concentrates." This is true, roughly, of other countries as well as England. To the two estates, clergy and nobles, was added a third, that of the commons in Eng land, that of the roturiers in France (tiers Btat). The term, fourth estate, meaning at first the lower classes, later the press, came into use over a century ago.

The system of estates, based on the mediaeval conception of society as divided into definite orders, formed the basis of what ever constitutional forms survived in Europe till the French Revolution. In England, of course, it had early become obscured, the House of Commons representing the whole nation outside the narrow order of the peers. The phrase "three estates," as applied to the English Constitution at present, is misleading. It is now usually understood of the lords spiritual, the lords temporal and the commons.

In the constitutional struggles of the European continent, from the Revolution onward, the rival theories of representation by es tates and of popular representation have played a great part. The crucial moment of the French Revolution was when the vote according to "order" was rejected, and the estates of the clergy and nobles were merged with the tiers etat, the States-General thus becoming the National Assembly. This was the precedent followed, generally speaking, during the 19th century in the other countries in which constitutional government was estab lished.

The plural form ESTATES or STATES was the name commonly given to an assembly of estates. When such an assembly was not merely local or provincial it was called the Estates-General or States General, e.g., in France the assembly of the deputies of the three estates of the realm as distinct from the provincial estates, which met periodically in the so-called pays d'etats. (See also REPRESENTATION.) For further details about the estates in England and elsewhere see W. Stubbs, Constitutional History; vol. ii. (1896) ; H. Hallam, The Middle Ages (1855) ; F. W. Maitland, Constitutional History of England (1908) ; A. Luchaire, Histoire des institutions monarchiques de la France (1883-85) ; G. Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte (Kiel, 1865-78) ; and A. S. Rait, The Scottish Parliament (19o1).

United States.

Generally speaking, the common law system of estates prevails in America. With the Revolution the various States succeeded to the rights of king as overlord with the result that the owner of an estate in fee simple holds directly of the State. If he died without heirs the land escheats to the State. In a few States, by statute or judicial decision land is not held of the State but the system of allodial ownership prevails. The dif ferences, however, are not marked inasmuch as the State also succeeds to the allodial owner should he die without heirs.

The estate tail also exists in the United States. In many States it has been abolished by statute, such statutes operating either to give the donee in tail an estate in fee simple or an estate for life. In Iowa, the estate tail was abolished by judicial decision, the existence of such an estate in land being regarded as inimical to the spirit, genius and institutions of America. Some States by interpreting legislation as impliedly repealing the old English statute of De Donis have thereby abolished the estate tail. The old English devices of common recoveries and fines that enabled a tenant in tail to transform his estate into a fee simple were recognized in America. Statutes in practically all States now enable the tenant in tail to accomplish this result with greater ease, a properly recorded conveyance by him being deemed sufficient.

The common law life estate has survived with little change. In dealing with estates pur autre vie, statutes have generally abolished the common law doctrine of the common occupant and made specific provisions for the disposition of the residue where the tenant dies and under the old view the land becomes ownerless.