Possession of real property will be pre sumed to accompany ownership until the contrary is proved; and constructive posses ' sion consequent upon legal ownership is suf ficient as against mere trespassers; Gon zales v. Ross, 120 U. S. 605, 7 Sup. Ct. 705, 30 L. Ed. 801. -Long continued possession and use of real property creates a presump tion of lawful origin ; Bradshaw v. Ashley, 180 U. S. 59, 21 Sup. Ct. 297, 45 L. Ed. 423; and this presumption need not rest upon be lief that a conveyance was in point of fact executed; Fletcher v. Fuller, 120 U. S. 534. 7 Sup. Ct. 667, 30 L. Ed. 759.
When it is not based on legal right, but secured by violence and maintained with force and arms, possession cannot furnish ' the basis of a right ; Lyle v. Patterson, 228 U. S. 211, 33 Sup. Ct. 480, 57 L. Ed. 804.
Securities of a decedent, which he had kept in a safe-deposit box, to which he alone had access, are not "in the possession or un der the control" of the safe-deposit compa ny ; People v. Mercantile Safe-Deposit Co., 159 App. Div. 98, 143 N. Y. Supp• 849, contra, National S.-D. Co. v. Stead, 250 III. 584, 95 N. E. 973, Ann. Cas. 1912B, 430.
See Pollock & Wright, Possession ; Hol land, Jurisprudence; Savigny, Rechts des Besitzes ; Austin, Jurisprudence; Salmond, Jurisprudence.
See ADVERSE POSSESSION ; LIMITATIONS.
In Louisiana. Civil possession exists when a person ceases to reside in a house or on the land which he occupied, or to detain the movable which he possessed, but without in tending to abandon the possession. It is the detention of a thing by virtue of a just title and under the conviction of possessing as owner. La. Civ. Code, art. 3392, 3394.
Natural possession is that by which a man detains a thing corporeal; as, by occupying a house, cultivating ground, or retaining a movable in his possession. Natural posses sion is also defined to be the corporeal de tention of a thing which we possess as be longing to us, without any title to that pos session, or with a title which is void. La. Civ. Code, art. 3391, 3393.
Possession applies properly only to cor poreal things, movables and immovables. The possession of incorporeal rights, such as servitudes and other rights of that na ture, is only a quasi-possession, and is exer cised by a species of possession of which these rights are susceptible. Id. art. 3395.
Possession may be enjoyed by the proprie tor of the thing or by another for him : thus, the proprietor of a house possesses it by his tenant or farmer.
To acquire possession of a property, two things are requisite : the intention of pos sessing as owner; the corporeal possession of the thing. Id. art. 3399.
Possession is lost with or without the con sent of the possessor. It is lost with his consent—when he transfers this possession to another with the intention to divest him self of it ; when he does some act which man ifests his intention of abandoning possession : as, when a man throws into the street furni ture or clothes of which he no longer chooses to make use. Id. art. 3411. A possessor of an estate loses the possession against his consent—when another expels him from it, whether by force in driving him away, or by usurping possession during his absence, and preventing him from re-entering ; when the possessor of an estate allows it to be usurped and held for a year, without during that, time having done any act of possession or interfered with the usurper's possession. Id. art. 3412.
In Criminal Law. In some states it is made a criminal offence to have possession of burglars' tools with intent to use them for the purpose for which they were intended. Under such a statute it was held that it is sufficient to allege in the information posses sion with the intent to break open places of deposit in general and take property, with out specifying any -particular place or prop erty. Scott v. State, 91 Wis. 552, 65 N. W. 61.
See RECENT POSSESSION OF STOLEN PROP ERTY.
In International Law. As indicating politi cal control, a possession means the same as a colony. It was so used in the treaty of 1897, between the United States and Great Britain, which failed to receive the approval of the senate.
The Roman law doctrine of possession, or occupation, has been of immense importance in international law ; by it anything without an owner might be taken possession of (oc cupation) by any one who desired to keep it. Grotius, to some extent at least, applied the doctrine to the partition of the New World by European nations. Taylor, Jurispr. § 48.