TESIT and DOWER.
Of estates less than freehold there are three kinds—estates for years, at will, and by sufferance. An estate for years (which includes an estate from year to year) is personal property, and, like other chattels [thisTrEts], upon the death of the owner, without having dis posed of it in his lifetime, devolves upon his executors or administrators. An es tate at Will arises where a man lets lands to another expressly at the will of both parties, or without limiting any certain estate ; either party may put an end to the tenancy, though, for the sake of gene ral convenience, the courts as far as pos sible consider them as tenancies from year to year, for the purpose of rendering a six months' notice necessary to their determination. An estate by Sufferance arises where a tenant, who has entered by lawful title, continues in possession after his interest has determined : this estate may be put an end to at any time by the lawful owner, though, after acceptance of rent, the law would consider it as a tenancy from year to year, as in the case of a tenancy at will.
All these estates, real and personal, freehold or less than freehold, freeholds of inheritance or not of inheritance, may become subject to another qualification, and be called estates upon condition, be ing such whose existence depends upon the happening or not happening of some uncertain event whereby the estate may be either originally created or enlarged, or finally defeated.
2 Estates are either in possession or in expectancy.
An estate in possession requires no ex planation here. Estates in expectancy involve some of the nicest and most abstruse learning in English law : they are divided into estates in remainder and reversion, and by executory devise or bequest ; and again, remainders are di vided into estates in remainder vested or contingent. An executory devise or be quest is such a limitation of a future estate or interest in lands or chattels as the law admits in the case of a will, though contrary to the rules of limita tion in conveyance by deed.
3. Estates may he enjoyed in four ways ; in severalty, in joint tenancy, in copar cenary, and in common.
An estate in severalty is when one te nant holds it in his own right without any other person being joined with him.
An estate in joint tenancy is when an estate is granted to two or more persons at the same time, in which case they are joint tenants, unless the words of the grant expressly exclude such construc tion ; they have unity of interest, of title, of time of vesting, and of possession, and upon the decease of one, his whole in terest, unless disposed of by him in his lifetime, remains to the survivor or sur vivors.
An estate in coparcenary is when an estate of inheritance descends from the ancestor to two or more persons, who are called parceners, and amongst parceners there is no survivorship. If a man dies seized of an estate of inheritance in land, and have no male heir, it descends to the female heir, and if there is more than one of them in the same degree of kin, it de scends to them in equal shares, and they are called parceners or coparceners.
An estate in common is when two or more persons hold property, by distinct titles and for different interests, but by unity of possession.
All these three last-mentioned modes of joint and undivided possession may be put an end to by the parties interested, either by certain modes of conveyance or by =on.
are a-so Legal or Equitable. It is a legal estate when the owner is in the actual seisin or possession, and also entitled to the beneficial interest himself or in trust for some other person. An Equitable estate is when some other per son, not the person who is the actual and legal owner, is entitled to the bene ficial interest of the property of which that other is in possession. The power of the beneficial owner over his equitable estate is as complete as if he were pos sessed of the legal estate.