PERSONAL PROPERTY. The right pr interest which a man has in things per sonal.
The right or interest less than a freehold which a man has in realty, or any right or interest which he has in things movable. Personal property is to be distinguished from things personal. There may be, for example, a personal estate in realty, as chattels real ; but the only property which a man can have in things personal must he a personal property. The essen tial idea of personal property is that of property in a thing movable or separable from the realty, or of perishability or possibility of brief duration of interest as oompared with the owner's life in a thing real, without any action on the part of the owner. See 2 Sharswood, Blackst. Comm. 14 and notes, 384 and notes.
2. A crop growing in the ground is per sonal property so far as not to be considered an interest in land, under the Statute of Frauds. 11 East, 362 ; 12 Me. 337 ; 5 Barnew. & C. 829 ; 9 id. 561 ; 10 Ad. & E. 753.
It is a general principle of American law that stock held in corporations is to be con sidered as personal property, Walker, Am.
Law, 211 • 4 Dane, Abr. 670 ; Sullivan, Land Tit. 71 ; Hilliard, Real Prop. 18 ; though it was held that such stock was real estate, 2 Conn.567 ; but, this being found inconvenient, the law was changed by the legislature.
3. Title to personal property is acquired— first, by original acquisition by occupancy : as, by capture in war, by finding a lost thing; second, by original acquisition by. accession ; third, by original acquisition by intellectual labor : as, copyrights and patents for inven tions ; fourth, by transfer, which is by act of law, by forfeiture, by judgment, by insol vency, by intestacy ; fifth, by transfer by act of the party, by gift, by sale. See, gene rally, 16 Viner, Abr. 335 ; 8 Comyns, Dig. 474,562 ; 1 Belt, Suppl.Ves. Ch. 49, 121, 160, 198, 255, 368, 369, 899, 412, 478 ; 2 id. 10, 40, 129, 290, 291, 341 • 1 Vern. Ch. 3, 170, 412 ; 2 Salk. 449 ; 2 Yes. Ch. 59, 176, 261, 271, 336, 683 ; 7 id. 453. See PEW ; PRO