363. Number of Owners. As to number of owners, estates are classified as estates in severalty and joint estates.

1. Estates in Severalty. An estate in severalty is one of which there is but a single owner, who holds and enjoys it to the exclusion of all the world.

2. Joint Estates. A joint estate is one the title to which is vested in two or more persons.

Of joint estates there are five; viz., joint tenancies, tenancies in common, estates in coparcenary, estates by the entirety, and partnership estates.

(a) Joint Tenancies. A joint tenancy is a joint estate in which all of the co-tenants have one and the same interest, acquired at one and the same time, by one and the same instrument, held by one and the same possession. During their lives they equally enjoy the land or its equivalent in rents and profits. Upon the death of one, his share vests in the survivor or survivors, and so on until there is but one tenant, who then holds the estate in severalty; upon his death it descends to his heirs. This is known as the doctrine of survivorship. A joint tenancy cannot be acquired by descent; it can be created only by purchase, and may be in fee, for life or for years. Because of the peculiar doctrine of survivorship, American law is unfavorable to joint tenancies and favorable to tenancies in common, wherein the heirs of a deceased co-tenant take and not the surviving tenants. However, joint tenancies among trustees and other persons holding in a fiduciary capacity are still looked upon favorably. While a joint tenant's interest is not devisable or descendable, he may alienate his share to a stranger who will hold as a tenant in common with the other joint tenants that continue to hold in joint tenancy.

(b) Tenancies in Common. Joint estates in which there is unity of possession, but the titles may be separate and distinct and the interests different. If the estate is in fee, a tenant may dispose of his interest by will, or it will pass by inheritance to his heirs.

(c) Estates in Coparcenary. Tenancy in coparcenary was the joint estate which at common law vested by descent in the heirs of an intestate-one who had died without leaving a will. The estate is now obsolete, being superseded by tenancy in

common.

(d) Estates in Entirety. Estate by the entirety arose at common law by conveyances to a man and wife jointly. They were not seized of the land by halves, but by entireties. The modern so-called "Married Women's Acts" are generally held to have abolished these estates by inference, since the two are entirely inconsistent.

(e) Partnership Estates. An estate in partnership is a joint estate vested in the members of a partnership, purchased with partnership funds for partnership purposes. In equity the estate is treated as personal property liable for the partnership debts in preference to individual claims; but, in this country, after the payment of partnership debts, the remainder of the realty, or the proceeds of its sale, is treated as real property passing to the heir or devisee, and subject to the widow's dower.

Partition is the act of dividing joint estates into estates in severalty among the co-tenants in proportion to their undivided shares in the joint estate. All joint estates are subject to partition except estates in entirety. The partition is voluntary when all the co-tenants join in mutual deeds conveying a separate parcel to each co-tenant in severalty. If all do not join, the partition is a nullity and those who have signed are not bound. Partition is compulsory or involuntary when enforced or compelled by suit at law or in equity by one or more of the co-tenants.

364. Time of Enjoyment. As to their time of enjoyment, estates are either present or future, or, as they are sometimes designated, estates in possession and estates in expectancy. A present estate, or an estate in possession, is any estate in lands, to the possession of which the true owner has or is immediately entitled. Future estates, or estates in expectancy, are such estates the possession and enjoyment of which is withheld or postponed

until some future time. The most common of these are reversions and remainders. A reversion is that future interest in lands which an owner has, after having conveyed a present estate to another person; as, for example, Smith, owning a fee, grants and conveys a life estate to Brown. The part of the fee left to Smith is a reversion. A remainder is a future estate in lands, which is preceded and supported by a particular estate in possession; and it takes effect in possession immediately upon the termination of the prior particular estate, and it is created at the same time and by the same instrument that creates the particular estate. By particular estate is meant a part or portion of the entire fee or interest; as, for example, a life estate is a particular estate. Suppose A has a fee simple estate in a quarter section of land and dies leaving a will whereby he devises to his wife a life estate in the land and the remainder in fee to his sons, John and James. The life estate of the widow is a freehold particular estate in possession and in severalty. The estate. to the sons is a freehold of inheritance, and is a remainder in fee owned by them as tenants in common. Remainders are either vested or contingent. A remainder is vested when the title has already passed to the remainderman, as in the above example. It is contingent when the passing of title is withheld or suspended until the happening of some event which may or may not take place in the future, as the foregoing remainder to the sons would be contingent if it were given "to those of my sons who shall survive their mother." In such case it could not be known just which would survive their mother, and title would not pass until her death had rendered such fact ascertainable.

An estate is the specific degree of interest or right of property in lands.

A freehold is an estate of indefinite duration.

A leasehold is an estate of definite or fixed duration.

An estate of inheritance is one which passes by descent to the heirs

of the owner upon his death.

Dower is the estate which the law provides for the wife out of the real property of the husband.

Curtesy is the life estate created by law for the husband out of the inheritable estates of the wife.

Homestead is the estate which statutory law exempts from levy and sale under execution for the debts of the head of the family in order to preserve a home for the family.

An estate in severalty is owned by one person.

A joint estate is owned by two or more persons.

Partition is the proceeding whereby joint estates are apportioned into estates of severalty according to the interests of the joint owners. A reversion is the future estate in lands which the owner has after having conveyed a present estate to another.

A remainder is a future estate in lands preceded and supported by a particular estate in possession, both the remainder and particular estate being created at the same time by the same instrument.

Define estate. What three elements does it embrace?

the four chief characteristics estates possess?

Define a freehold; a leasehold. Classify freeholds.

What are

What is an estate of inheritance? What are the principal estates arising out of the marriage relation?

Define dower. What is its extent or duration and out of what estates does it issue?

Define curtesy and enumerate the essentials necessary to its attaching. Describe homestead and define its purpose. How may homestead be lost or extinguished?

Classify estates according to number of owners. Define an estate in severalty; a joint estate; a joint tenancy; a tenancy in common. Distinguish between a joint tenancy and a tenancy in common. What is an estate in partnership? Define partition, both voluntary and compulsory.

Distinguish between present estates and estates in expectancy. Define a reversion; a remainder; a vested remainder; a contingent remainder. Give illustrations. What is a particular estate?

367. Leaseholds, or estates less than freeholds, as stated before, are regarded as personal property. Out of this interest arises the relation of landlord and tenant, which is a contract relation, the contract being known as a lease. The leaseholds comprise estates or tenancies for years, or at will, also from year to year, and by sufferance. An estate for years is an estate limited for a certain definite time, and may be created orally, or by an instrument in writing; but must be created by an instrument in writing if it is to endure beyond the minimum period fixed by the Statute of Frauds (usually one or three years) from the