OCCUPANCY, in law, the taking possession of an unappropriated corporeal thing, with the intention of becoming its owner. This mode of acquiring property came to the common from the Roman law, which considered occupancy a mode of acquiring property belonging to no one, hut subject to appropriation by the first collier. Instances are uninhabited lands, which belong to the discoverer. The finder of unclaimed lost goods has a title to them by occupancy, and so has the captor of beasts of a wild nature, so long as he keeps possession of them, but there can be no complete property in them till they are domesticated; and if they make their escape, with no intention of coming back, animus rerertendi, the ownership of the original owner ceases, and their next captor acquires a title in them by occupancy. But if they be once domesticated the title by occupation becomes indefeasible. The owner of property by accession acquires his title by occupancy, and so does the owner of goods obtained by confusion; it being held, that where a person with fraudulent intent mixes his property indistinguishably with, that of another, the hitter is not compelled to distinguish his property from that of the former, but is entitled to the ownership of the whole, and lie acqnires such ownership by occu pancy. Blackstone refers the title to literary property to the same head of occupancy, and here also belongs the title to trade marks, ownership of which is acquired by a person using them to indicate his ownership of certain articles, or certain business. Another instance of title to personal property obtained by occupancy, occurs in tile case of property acquired from an enemy in time of war. By the law of nations, property captured from an enemy vests in the government or sovereign of the state of which the captor is a subject; but the captors are generally allowed a part or the whole of the prop erty captured. A good title to property captured on land is acquired by occupancy without the intervention of a court; but in the case of prizes acquired at sea, judgment must be rendered by a prize court of competent jurisdiction. The English method of
distributing booty, i.e., property captured on land, is by grant from trustees appointed by the crown, and whose acts of distribution are subject to its assent. Instances of the acquisition of a title to land by occupancy are more rare. Land left bare by the sea or a lake, or deposited by a river, is acquired by occupancy. Another instance, at the com mon law, was where an estate was limited to one person during the life of another per son, and the former died; there was then no person to whom the estate could puss. The executor could not take it, for it was not personal property ; nor the heir, because it was not a fee; nor the original grantor, because he could not take back his own grant. Any person, therefore, could come in and take possession; and the person so acquiring pos session was known as the "general occupant." The common law rule has been changed in many of the states, and in some the residue of the estate goes to the executor as per sonal property. Where the limitation was to one person and his heirs, during the life of another, and the former person dies, the residue to his heirs, not as heirs, because the estate is not one of inheritance, but as " special occupants" named in the grant. The general theory of title by occupation has long been of little importance. While this country was a colony of Great Britain, the ownership of land was held to be vested in the crown, and individual titles to land were derived from the crown. Since the separa tion of the colonies from Great Britain, titles are derived from the grant of the United States or the individual states. The occupatio, or occupation, of the Roman law, was the same thing as occupancy.