OCCUPANCY ( from Lat, °cc/quire, to occu py, from ob. before, toward caperr, to take). A mode of acquiring title to property by taking possession of an unappropriated corporeal thing with the intention of becoming its owner. This mode of acquiring property came into the com mon law from the Boman civil law, which con sidered occupancy a mole of acquiring property to no one, but subject to appropriation by the first comer. The finder of unclaimed lost goods has a title to Hum by occupancy. So has the captor of beasts of a wild nature so long as he keeps possession of them, but there can he no complete property in them till they are do mesticated; and if they make their escape. with no intention of coining back, the ownership of the original owner ceases. and their next, captor acquires a title in them by occupancy. But if they be once domesticated the title by occupation becomes indefeasible. The owner of property by accession acquires his title by occupancy, and so does the owner of goods obtained by confusion; it being held that where a person with fraudulent intent mixes his property indistinguishably with that of another, the latter is not compelled to distinguish his property from that of the former, hut is entitled to the ownership of the whole.
(See ACCESSION: CONFI'StOS.1 Itlaekstone fers the title to literary property to the head of occupancy, here also belongs the title to trade marks, which is :icquired by a person using such marks to indicate his ownership of certain articles, or of certain business.
The acquisition of title to laud by occupancy is also recognized by the law. Land left bare by the gradual action of the sea, or deposited by fl river, is acquired by occupancy. While this country was a colony of Great Britain, the owner ship of land was held to be vested in the Crown, and individual titles to land were derived from the Crown. Since the separation of the colonies from Great Britain, titles are derived from the grant of the United States or the individual States. The right of the discoverer of uninhabit ed lands to assume jurisdiction over them is to be referred to the same general principle of title by occupancy. See REAL PlyElul"; TITLE; and consult the authorities there given.