PATENT ; COPYRIGHT.
The title to personal property is acquired and lost by transfer by act of law, in various ways : by forfeiture; succession ; marriagc:' judgment ; insolvency ; intestacy. See those titles.
Title is acquired and lost by transfer by the act of the party, by gift, by contract or sale.
4. In general, possession constitutes the criterion of title of personal property, because no other means exist by which a knowledge of the fact to whom ft belongs can be at tained. A seller of a chattel is not, therefore, required to show the origin of his title, nor, in general, is a purchaser, without notice of the claim of the owner, compellable to make restitution ; but it seems that .1 purchaser from a, tenant for life of personal chattels will not be secure against the claims of those entitled in remainder. Cowp. 432; 1 Brown, Ch. 274; 2 Term, 376; 3 Atk. Ch. 44; 3 Ves. & B. Ch. Ir. 16.
As an exception to the rule that possession is the criterion of title of property may be mentioned the case of ships, the title of which can be ascertained by the register. 15 Ves. Ch. 60 ; 17 id. 251 ; 8 Price, Exch. 256, 277.
5. To convey a title, the seller must him self have a title to the property which is the subject of the transfer. But to this general rule there are exceptions. The lawful coin of the United States will pass the property along with the possession. A negotiable in strument indorsed in blank is transferable by any person holding it, so as by its de livery to give a good title "to any person honestly acquiring it." 3 Barnew. & C. 47; 3 Burr. 1516; 5 Term, 683; 7 Bingh. 284; 7 'launt. 265, 278; 13 East, 509.
In Legislation. That part of an act of the legislature by which it is known and distin guished from other acts ; the name of the act.
6. A practice has prevailed, of late years, to crowd into the same act a mass of hete rogeneous matter, so that it is almost impos sible to describe or even to allude to it in the title of the act. The practice has rendered
the title of little importance; yet in some cases it is material in the construction of an act. 7 East, 132, 134; 2 Cranch, 386. See Ld. Raym. 77 ; Hardr. 324 ; Barrington, Stat. 499, n.
In Lfterature. The particular division of a subject, as a law a book, and the like: for example, Digest, b'ook 1, title 2. For the law relating to bills of exchange, see Bacon, Abr. Merchant.
Personal Relations. A distinctive ap pellation denoting the rank to which the in dividual belongs in society.
7. The constitution of the United States forbids the grant by the United States or any state of any title of nobility. Titles are be stowed by courtesy on certain officers: the president of the United States sometimes re ceives the title of excellency; judges and members of congress, that of honorable ; and members of the bar and justices of the peace are called esquires. Cooper, Just. Inst. 416; Brackenridge, Law Misc.
Titles are assumed by foreign princes, and among ;heir subjects they may exact these marks of honor; but in their intercourse with foreign nations they are not •entitled to them as a niatter of right. Wheaton, Int. Law, pt. 2, c. 3, 6.
In Pleading. The right of action which the plaintiff' has. The declaration must show the plaintiff's title, and if such title he not shown in that instrument the defect cannot be cured by any of the future pleadings, Bacon, Abr. Pleas, etc. (B 1).
In Rights. The name of a newspaper, a book, and the like.
The owner of a newspaper having a par ticular title has a right to such title; and an injunction will lie to prevent its use unlaw fully by another. 8 Paige, Ch. N. Y. 75. See Pardessus, n. 170.
Those deeds which are evidences of the title of the owner of an estate.
The person who is entitled t,o the inherit ance has a right to the possession of the title deeds. 1 Carr. & M. 653.