OWNER. He who has dominion of a thing, real or personal, corporeal or incorpo real, which he has a right to enjoy and do with as he pleases,—even to spoil or destroy it, as far as the law permits, unless he be pre vented by sonae agreement or covenant which restrains his right.
2. Although there can be but one absolute owner of a thing, there may be 74 qualified ownership of the same thing by many. Thus, a bailor has the general ownership of the thing bailed, the bailee the special owner ship. The right of the absolute owner is more extended than that of him who has only a qualified ownership : as, for example, the use of the thing. Thus, the absolute owner of an estate, that is, an owner in fee, may cut the wood, demolish the buildings, build new ones, and dig wherever he may deem proper for minerals, stone, plaster, and similar things, which would be considered waste and would not be allowed in a qualified owner of the estate, as a lessee or a tenant for life. The word owner, when used alone, imports an absolute owner • but it has been held in Ohio that the word' owner, in the Mechanic Lien Law of that state, included the owner of the leasehold as well as of the reversion, on the ground that any other construction would be subversive of the policy and intent of the statute. 2 Ohio, 123.
3. The owner continues to have the same right althou0. he perform no acts of owner ship or be disabled from performing them, and although another perform such acts with out -the knowledge or against the will of the owner. But the ovrner may lose his right in a thing if he permit it to remain in the pos session of a third person for a sufficient time to enable the latter to acquire a title to it by prescription or under the Statute of Limita tion. See La. Civ. Code, b. 2, tit. 2, c. 1 ; Encyclopedie de M. d'Alembert, Proprie taire.
4. When there are several joint-owners of a thing,—as, for example, of a ship,—the majority of them have the right to make con tracts in respect of such thing in the usual course of business or repair, and the like, and the minority will be bound by such contracts. Holt, 586 ; 1 Bell, Comm. 5th ed. 519 ; 5 Whart. Penn. 366.