DISSEISIN (OF. disscisin. from disseisir, dissnisir, Fr. dessnisir. to disseise. from des-, dig-, apart + sei.sir, sniser, It. satire, to seize, from 31L. satire. to take possession of. from 011G. snz.:an, Ger. setzen, to set). At common law, the process of acquiring title to land by a wrong ful possession thereof, accompanied by a claim to the freehold. It involved the double notion of the ouster of the rightful owner from his seisin and the definite acquisition of seisin by the newcomer. Its extraordinary efficacy in making a wrongful act of dispossession the basis of a valid (though defensible) title is due to the transcendent im portance which at the feudal law attached to the bare fact of possession of lands. The person seised of lands—that is, possessed of them and claiming them as his 0 WM —was not only 'pre sumed' to he the rightful owner, as we should ex press it to-day. but was, to all intents and pur poses. in his public as well as his private relations, regarded as the owner. As to the person whom lie has ousted (the disgeig,e). the possessor may have been only a disseisor; but in the eye of the law he was invested with the title, which would pass by descent to his heir or which he could alienate at his pleasure.
Of course, this title was a defeasible one, whieh could by entry or by appropriate legal proceed ings, taken within a limited time, be destroyed, notwithstanding its descent or alienation; hut pending such action it was the only existing right in the land which was recognized by the law as an estate or legal interest. The disseIsce,
whom we call the rightful owner. was in effect only a rightful claimant, and what he had was not an estate or interest in the land. but a mere right of entry, which might or might not some time ripen into a legal estate, and certain emu bersome and expensive rights of action, which might or might not avail him. Though these rights were capable of transmission by descent, they could not be alienated or made available to another, and if not exercised within the longer or shorter term to which they were limited by law they were barred altogether. In the earliest period of English law, only a few days were al lowed for making a upon lands—only so long as might be necessary to enable the dis seisee to harp of the disscisin and make the necessary journey to the spot. Later the period of was fixed by statute at sixty ? ears and upward. and it is now, according to the jurisdiction, fixed at periods of ten to twenty years, but. the practice and effect of a disseisin, and the respective rights of the parties in the land, continue to be substantially the same as at common law. See ADVERSE PoSSESSION ; DESCENT CAST; LIMITATION PRESCRIPTION ; and SEISIN.
Consult the authorities referred to under REAL PROPERTY.