JOINT TENANCY signifies joint ownership of two or more persons in land, or other property, as goods and chattels. It from Tenancy in Common TENANCY Di] and Coparcenership (PsitcssrEss] in the following essentials : joint tenants are severally seised or possessed of the undivided whole of the land or other property in which they have a joint interest, and also of their several shares, which shares are always equal shares, inasmuch as joint tenants take by purchase only, and by a joint title : the estate or interest must be limited to the several persons by the same deed or instrument, and such estate or interest must vest in them at the same time, except (according to the more common opinion) the estate be limited to take effect under the Statute of Uses or by devise, in which eases the con temporaneous vesting of the several parts is not necessary : the whole estate or property will go to the survivors and survivor of the joint tenants, if the jointure continue until such survivorship ; which is the important characteristic of a joint tenancy. It is a consequence of the mode in which joint tenants are legally considered to be seised or possessed, and of the:right to the whole which accrues to the survivors and survivor, if no separation of the joint tenancy has been made before such survivorship takes place—that they cannot grant, or bargain and sell, or surrender or devise to each other ; they cannot exchange with each other, nor can one make a feoffment to another. But any joint tenant may transfer his interest to any one of his companions by release, or rather he can by such instrument put an end to his interest ; and any joint tenant may convey his share to a stranger by grant ; or he may compel his companions to make a partition, by statute. Every person to whom the interest of a joint tenant is transferred becomes, as to such share, a tenant in common with the remaining joint tenants.
A joint tenant cannot dispose of either the whole or the part of the property in which he is jointly interested consistently with the proper notion of a joint tenancy, by a will made during the continuance of the joint tenancy, even though he should happen to be the survivor ; because until he has survived he has nothing to dispose of by will. But by severing the joint tenancy he acquires the power of disposing of his share by will. By the Wills act (1 Vict., e. 26), a person may by a will, made according to the provisions of that act, dispose of all real and personal estate to which he shall have a legal or equitable title at the time of his death, and which, if not disposed of by will, would go to his heir, or the heir of his ancestor, or to his personal representa tives. But this act gives no power of disposal over the unsevered
interest of a joint tenant.
As to the written instruments and words by which a joint tenancy may be created, and the various rights and remedies which belong to a joint tenant, it is not necessary to dwell at any length here. The discussion of them belongs to special treatises on law. As an example of words which would create a joint tenancy, we may take the case of a feoffment to two or more persons and their heirs, which would make the feoffees joint tenants in fee simple, so that the survivors would always succeed, and the last survivor would take the whole in fee, unless any one of the joint tenants had in his lifetime conveyed his share. And generally, when there is a gift of real or personal estate to several persons, and nothing more is said, these words make them joint tenants, even in the case of pecuniary legacies and residuary bequests. To create a tenancy in common, it is not necessary, either in a deed Dr will, to declare that the parties to whom the gift or devise is made shall take it as tenants in common, and not as joint tenants. Any words which undoubtedly convey this meaning are sufficient for the purpose ; but less exact or definite words are required for this purpose in a will than in a deed: Where an estate is given to two persons and the heirs of their bodies, if the two persons are such as cannot have common heirs of their bodies (as two men or two women, or a man and a woman who cannot legally intermarry), then such persons are joint tenants for life, but have separate inheritances, or are tenants in common in remainder in tail. But if the gift be to a man and his wife and the heirs of their bodies, or to a man and woman who may marry and the heirs of their bodies, the parties are joint tenants of the inheritance ; and if they be husband and wife they take by entireties. The tenancy by entireties is a consequence of tho legal unity of husband and wife. Such tenancy exists when real egtAto is limited by deed or will to husband and wife jointly during their marriage for an estate ..of inheritance or freehold : the husband and wife possess the lands entirely as one individual ; on the death of either of them they go to the survivor, and there is no power of alienation or forfeiture of either alone which can prejudice the right of the other.