ENTIRETY (from entire, OF., Fr. entirr, It. intero, from Lat. integer, whole, from not tangere, to toueb ). TENANCY RY, The form of joint estate which subsists between husband and wife. Like the ordinary joint estate, it arises upon a conveyance or device to the two persons together who are to hold the premises. and, like that also, it is attended with the right of survivorship. as incident to the estate, the interest of the one dying first passing to the other and not to the heirs of the decedent. But the eirenmstance that the joint tenants are here husband and wife, and have, therefore, identical interests in the prop erty. has differentiated the tenancy by entirety in some important respects from joint tenancy proper. The joint tenant may ordinarily convey his interest separately from his cotenants, there liv dissolving the joint estate and destroying the right of survivorship. But this is not permitted in the case of a tenancy of the entirety: neither can the estate be partitioned during the existence of the marriage relation, though it is dissolved by a divorce and the parties thereupon converted Into tenants in common.
The estate is one which is much favored by the law, and it has accordingly been generally held that it is not affected by statutes abolishing joint tenancies, or creating a presumption in favor of tenancies in common; nor yet by the more recent legislation known as the married women's acts. whereby a wife is rendered capa ble of holding real estate free from the control .of her husband. But in a few States the con trary view has been taken, and in a few others the tenancy by entirety has never been recog nized. In most of the United States, however, the estate still exists without material change in the characteristics which it had at the common law. See Il USBAND AND WIFE, and the authori ties there referred to.