TITHINGMAN. In Saxon Law. The head or chief of a tithing or decennary of ten fam ilies; he was to decide all lesser causes be tween neighbors. Now tithingmen and con stables are the same thing. Jacob, Law Diet.
In New England, a parish officer to keep good order in church. Webster, Diet.
TITLE. Estates. The means wh theTitle. Estates. The means wh the owner of lands hath the jus possession of his property. Co. Litt. 345; 2 Bla. Com. 195. See Courtier v. Graham, 1 Ohio 349. This is the definition of title to lands only.
A bad title is one which conveys no prop erty to the purchaser of an estate.
A doubtful title is one which the court does not consider to be so clear that it will en force its acceptance by a purchaser, nor so defective as to declare it a bad title, but only subject to so much doubt that a purchaser ought not to be compelled to accept it ; 1 J. & W. 568 ; Sebring v. Mersereau, 9 Cow. (N. Y.) 344.
A good title is that which entitles a man by right to a property or estate, and to the law ful possession of the same.
A marketable title is one which a court of equity considers to be so clear that it will enforce its acceptance by a purchaser.
The doctrine of marketable titles is purely equitable and of modern origin ; Atk. Tit. 26. At law every title not bad is marketable ; 5 Taunt. 625 ; 6 id. 263.
There are several stages or degrees requi site to form a complete title to lands and tenements. The lowest and most imperfect degree of title is a presumptive title or the mere possession, or actual occupation of the estate, without any apparent right to hold or continue such possession: this happens when one man disseises another. The next step to a good and perfect title is the right of possession, which may reside in one man while the actual possession is not in himself, but in another. This right of possession is
of two sorts: an apparent right of possession, which may be defeated by proving a better, and an actual right of possession, which will, stand the test against all opponents. The mere right of property, the jus proprietatis, without either possession or the right of pos session. 2 Bla. Com. 195.
Title to real estate is acquired by two methods, namely, by descent and by purchase; also under the statute of limitations ; Mon toya v. Gonzales, 232 U. S. 375, 34 Sup. Ct. 413, 58 L. Ed. —.
Prescription, in the Roman law, gave the possessor a perfect title. The statute of lim itations provides, not that the adverse pos sessor shall acquire title, but that one who neglects for a given time to assert his right shall not thereafter enforce it. Still, as in the Roman law, title is gained by prescrip tion. James Barr Ames, Lect. on Leg. Hist. 197, 3 Sel. ESsays in Anglo-Amer. L. Hist. 567, where he notes a contrary view held by Prof. Langdell in Summary of Fq. Pl. § 122.
See ADVERSE POSSESSION; LAND TITLE AND TRANSFER.
Proceedings by the United States against a corporation for the condemnation of land, in which the state of the title and pending litigation as to it is set up in the pleadings, is not a concession that title is in such cor poration ; U. S. v. Water Power Co., 229 U. S. 53, 33 Sup. Ct. 667, 57 L. Ed. 1063.
Title to personal property may accrue in three different ways: by original acquisi tion; by transfer by act of law; by transfer by act of the parties.
Title by original acquisition is acquired by occupancy, see OCCUPANCY ; by accession, see ACCESSION; by intellectual labor, see PAT