USE. A confidence reposed in another, who was made tenant of the land, or terre tenant, that he would dispose of the land accordin5 to the intention of the cestui que use, or him to whose use it was granted, and suffer him to take the profits. Plowd. 352 ; Gilbert, Uses, 1 ; Bacon, Law T.r. 150, 306 ; Cornish, Uses, 13 ; 1 Fonblanque, Eq. 363; 2 id. 7 ; Saunders, Uses, 2 ; Coke, Litt. 272 b ; 1 Coke, 121 ; 2 Blackstone, Comm. 328 ; 2 Bouvier, Inst. 11. 1885 et seq.
A right in one person, called the cestui que use, to take the profits of land of which another has the legal title and possession, together with the duty of defending the satne and of making estates thereof according to the direction of the cestui que use.
Uses were derived from theyidei commies° of the Roman law. It was the duty of a Roman magis trate, the pr&tor fidei commiesarius, whom Bacon terms the particular chancellor for uses, to enforce the observance of thic confidence. Inst. 2. 23. 2. They were introducea into Eh:gland tir the ecclesi astics in the reign of Edward III., before 1377, for the purpose of avoiding the statutes of mortmain; and the clerical chancellors of those times held them to be fidei commies°, and binding in con science. To obviate many inconveniences and difficulties which had arisen out of the doctrine and introduction of uses, the Statute of 27 Henry VIII. a. 10, commonly called the Statute of Uses, or, in conveyances and pleadings, the statute for transferriog uses into possession, was passed. It enacts that "when any person shall be seised of lands, etc. to the use, confidence, or trust of any other person or body politic, the person or corpora tion entitled to the use in fee-simple, fee-tail, for life, or years, or otherwise, shall from thenceforth stand and be seised or possessed of the land, etc. of and in the like estate as they have in the use, trust, or confidence; and that the estates of the persons so seised to the uses shall he deemed to be in him or them that have the use, in such quality, manner, form, and condition as they had before in the use." The statute thus executes the use,— that is, it conveys the possession to the use, and transfers the use to the possession, and, in this manner, makiog the ceetui que use complete owner of the lands and tenements, as well at law as in equity. 2 Blackstone, Comm. 333; 1 Saund. 254, note 6.
A modern use has, therefore, been defined to be an estate of right which is acquired through the operation of the statute of 27 Henry VIII. c. 10; and which, when it may take effect according to the rules of the common law, is called the legal estate, and when it may not is denominated a use, with a term descriptive of its modification. Cor nish, Uses, 35.
The common-law judges decided, in the con struction of this statute, that a use could not he raised upon a use, Dy. 155 (A), and that on a
feoffment to A and his heirs to the use of B and his heirs in trust for C and his heirs, the statute executed only the first use, and that the second was it mere nullity. The judges also held that as the statute mentioned only such persoos as were twitted to the use of others, it did not extend to a term of years, or other chattel interests, of which a termor is not seised but only possessed. Bacon, Law Tr. 335; Poph. 76; Dy. 369; 2 Blackstone, Comm. 336. The rigid literal construction of the statute by the courts of law aouin opened the doors of the chancery courts. 1° Maddock, Chace. Pract. 448, 450.
Uses and trusts are often spoken of together by the older and some modern writers the distinction being those trusts which were o'f a permanent nature and required no active duty of the trustee being called nses; those in which the trustee had an active duty to perform, as, the payment of debts, raising portions, and the like, being called epecial or active trusts, or simply trusts. 1 Spence, Eq. Jur. 448.
For the creation of a use, a consideration either valuable, as, money, or good, as rela tionship in certain degrees was necespary. Crompt. 49 b ; 3 Swanst. dh. 591 ; 7 Coke, 40 ; Plowd. 298 ; 17 Mass. 257 • 4 N. H. 229, 397 ; 14 Johns. N. Y. 210. gee RESULTING Elm The property must have been in esse, and such that seisin could be given. Crabb, Real Prop. 1610-1612 • Croke Eliz. 401. Uses were alienable, alth'ough in many re spects resembling choses in action, which were not assignable at common law, Cornish, Uses, 19 ; 2 Blackstone, Comm. 331: when once raised, it might be granted or devised in fee, in tail, for life, or for years. 1 Spence, Eq. Jur. 455.
The effect of' the Statute of Uses was much restricted by the construction adopted by the courts : it practically resulted, it has been said, in the addition of these words, to the use, to every conveyance. Williams, Real Prop. 133. The intention of the statute was to destroy the estate'of the feoffee to use, and to transfer it by the very act which created it to the cestui que use, as if the seisin or estate of the feoffee, together with the use, had, uno fiatu, passed from the feoffor to the cestui que use. A very full and clear account of the history and present condition of the law of uses is given by Professor Washburn, 2 Real Prop. 91-156, which is of particular value to the American student. Consult, also, Spence, Eq. Jur. ; Cornish, Uses ; Bacon, Law Tracts; Greenleaf, Cruise, Dig.
In Civil Law. A right of receiving so much of the natural profits of a thing as is necessary to daily sustenance. It differs from usufruct, Which is a right not only to use, but to enjoy. I Browne, Civ. Law, 184; Legons Elem. du Dr. Civ. Rom. 414, 416.