SEISIN is a term properly applied to estates of freehold only, so that a man is said to bo seised of an estate of inheritance or for life, and to be possessed of a chattel interest, such as a term of years. This distinction does not appear to have existed in the time of Bracton ; at least he uses the two words as identical in meaning (" possossio sive arising, multiplex est,' lib. ii., foL 38).
The scisin of the tenant of a freehold is the legal possession of the land. It is actual seisin, called soisin in deed, when ho has corporeal possession of the land, or, as Bracton expresses it, " corporalis rei detentio : corporis et anima cum iuris adminiculo concurronte." It is seisin in law when lands have descended to a person, but he has not yet actually entered into possession of them, and no person has usurped the possession. When an estate of inheritance is divided into several estates, as for instance an estate for life, and a remainder or reversion in fee, the tenant in possession has the actual seisin of the lands; but the persons in remainder or reversion have also seisin of their respective estates.
In the conveyance of land by feoffment, which is now, however, almost uuknown, the delivery of the possossiou, or livery of as it is termed, is the efficient part of the conveyance. [FEOFFMENT.I Seisin in deed is obtained by actually entering into lands, and an entry into part in the name of the whole is sufficient; by the receipt of rents or profits; and by the actual entry of a lessee to whom the lands are demised by a person who is entitled to but has not obtained actual possession.
Scisin may also be acquired under the Statute of Uses, 27 Hen. VII I., which enacts that when any person shall be seised of any lands to the use, &c., of another, by reason of any bargain, sale, feoffment, &e., the person having the use, &c., shall thenceforth have the lawful seisin, of the lands in the same quality, manner, and form as he had before in the use.
A disseisin supposes a prior seisin in another, and a seisin by the disseisor which terminates such prior seisin. To constitute a disseisin, it was necessary that the disseisor should not have a right of entry ; the disseiaee should not voluntarily give up his seisin ; and that the disseisor should make himself the tenant of the land, or in other words, should put himself, with respect to the lord, in tho same situation as the person disseised. " But," it is well remarked (Co. Litt., 266 b, Butler's note), "how this substitution was effected, it is difficult, perhaps impossible, now to discover. From what we know of the feudal law, it does not appear how a disseisin could be effected with out the consent or connivance of the lord ; yet we find that the relationship of lord and tenant remained after the disseisin. Thus after the disseisin the lord might release the rent and services to the clisseisee ; might avow upon him; and if he died, his heir within age, the lord was entitled to the wardship of the heir." But the doctrine of disseisin is in many respects very obscure, and at present of very little practical importance.