The statute then provides for the case , of several persons being jointly seised to the use of any of them ; and contains two savings : 1st, To all persons (other than persons who were seised or thereaf ter should be seised of any lands, tene ments, or hereditaments, to any use, con fidence or trust) all such right, title, entry, interest, possession, writs, and action as they had or might have had the making of the Act ; and 2nd, To all per sons seised to any use, all such former rights as they had to their own proper use in, or to any manors or hereditaments whereof they should be seised to any other use.
the legislature intended by this act to put an end to the system of uses ; nevertheless, it was soon settled by the courts that it had not that effect, but that uses might still as formerly be raised, upon which the statute would instantly operate. However, some modifications of the system were introduced. Before the statute, a mere agreement for sale, without words of inheritance, was suffi cient to pass the equitable fee to the ven dee; but, by the 27 Hen. VIII. c. 16, it was enacted that no contract should trans fer the legal estate in the fee, unless it were made by deed enrolled. And it was resolved by the judges that words of in heritance were necessary to pass the fee at law. Indeed, no contract importing a future conveyance, even though made by deed enrolled, and containing words of inheritance, would now be held to trans fer the legal estate under the Statute of Uses, though it would entitle the vendee in equity to call for a regular conveyance. A farther modification of the system of uses was introduced by the seventh sec tion of the Statute of Frauds (29 Car. II. c. 3), which required that all declara tions of trusts or confidences of lands, tenements, or hereditaments ( which might formerly have been created by parol), should be manifested and proved by writing, signed by the party by whom it is declared. [STATUTE OF FRAUDS.) In order to raise a use which the sta tute will turn into a possession, it is ne cessary that there should be, 1st, one per son seised to the use of another, in else; 2nd, a use in ease, limited in possession, reversion, or remainder. The use may be either express, as where lands are convey ed to A and his heirs in trust for B and his heirs, or in confidence that he and they shall take the profits, or where a vendee, for a valuable consideration, con veys by bargain and sale enrolled, in both which cases the legal estate vests in the grantee or bargainee by the statute ; or it may be implied, as where a feoffment is made without consideration or declara tion of the use, in which case the use results, and the estate returns to we grantor. It was settled by the courts of law that the statute could not operate except upon an estate of freehold, and that therefore copy hold and leasehold estates are not affected by it. A term of years may of course be created out of a freehold estate by way of use, but when once subsisting cannot be conveyed to uses. If, therefore, a term were assigned
to A to the use of B, the legal estate would remain in A, who however would be considered in equity as a trustee for B.
By the operation of the Statute of Uses, a man may, through the medium of a feoffee or releasee, make a conveyance to his wife, which he could not do at com mon law (Litt., s. 168; Co. Litt., 112 a.). In like manner a married woman, having a power to limit a use, may appoint to her husband.
At common law a man could not limit a remainder to himself, nor could he limit it to his heirs so as to make them take as purchasers, without departing with the whole fee simple out of his person (Dyer, 156 a, fol. 24 ; Co. Litt., 22 b.), but he may do so by means of a conveyance ope rating under the Statute of Uses.
On the system of uses and the Statute of Uses has been founded the system of conveying property in laud, and making settlements of landed property in land, which is now in use in England ; a sys tem composed of numerous artificial rules and deductions, but, on the whole, well adapted to secure the numerous purposes which the owner of land in fee simple wishes to accomplish in disposing of his property.
It is a rule of the common law that joint tenants cannot take at different pe riods. (I Co., 100, b. 2.) Again, by its rules a fee could not be limited upon a fee ; a freehold could not be made to com mence is faturo, and an estate could not he made to cease by matter ex post facto, so as to let in another limitation before the expiration of the former. [REMAIN Dsai.1 But limitations of the above kinds may be made to take effect under the Sta tute of Uses. • Such limitations are called shifting or secondary and springing uses; and future or contingent uses.
As the Statute of Uses was made pre viously to the Statute of Wills (32 & 34 Hen. VIII.), it has been questioned whe ther the Statute of Uses can be held to apply to wills ; 'but as, before the statute, devises of the use were permitted, so, since the statute, the courts have uniformly 'held that, where a devise is made to a use, the intention of the testator must be taken to be that the devisee of the use should have the legal estate.
By a construction of the Statute of Uses, adopted soon after it was passed, it was settled that a use could not be limited on a use ; that is, that the statute would operate on the first declaration of use only : so that i1 by bargain and sale, a use in lands were limited to A and his heirs in trust or to the use of B and his heirs, the statute would vest the legal estate in A without adverting to the use declared in favour of B. The Court of Chancery availed itself of this construc tion to revive Uses under the name of Trusts ; and it was determined that A was, in the case above mentioned, a trus tee for B of the beneficial interest in the laud.
The subject of this article is briefly treated in Sanders, "On Uses and Trusts ;" and in Gilbert, " On Uses," by Sugden.