TITLE - The sum total of legally recognized
rights to the possession and ownership of property. Ownership
of property.
The means whereby the owner of lands hath the just
possession of his property. This is the definition of
title to lands only.
There are several stages or degrees requisite to form
a complete title to lands and tenements. 1st. The lowest
and most imperfect degree of title is 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. 2dly. 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. 3dly. The mere right of property, the jus
proprietatis without either possession or the right
of possession.
A title is either good, marketable, doubtful, or bad.
A good title is that which entitles a man by right
to a property or estate, and to the lawful 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 ordinary acceptation of the term marketable
title, would convey but a very imperfect notion of its
legal and technical import.
To common apprehension, unfettered by the technical
and conventional distinction of lawyers, all titles
being either good or bad, the former would be considered
marketable, the latter non-marketable. But this is not
the way they are regarded in courts of equity, the distinction
taken there being not between a title which is absolutely
good or absolutely bad, but between a title, which the
court considers to be so clear that it will enforce
its acceptance by a purchaser, and one which the court
will not go so far as to declare a bad title, but only
that it is subject to so much doubt that a purchaser
ought not to be compelled to accept it. In short, whatever
may be the private opinion of the court, as to the goodness
of the title yet if there be a reasonable doubt either
as to a matter of law or fact involved in it, a purchaser
will not be compelled to complete his purchase; and
such a title, though it may be perfectly secure and
unimpeachable as a holding title is said, in the current
language of the day, to be unmarketable.
The doctrine of marketable titles is purely equitable
and of modern origin. At law every title not bad is
marketable.
A doubtful title is one which the court does not consider
to be so clear that it will enforce 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.
At common law, doubtful titles are unknown; there every
title must be either good or bad.
A bad title is one which conveys no property to a purchaser
of an estate.
Title to real estate is acquired by two methods, namely,
by descent and by purchase.
Title to personal property may accrue in three different
ways. By original acquisition. 2. By transfer, by act
of law. 3. By transfer, by, act of the parties.
Title by original acquisition is acquired, 1st. By
occupancy. This mode of acquiring title has become almost
extinct in civilized governments, and it is permitted
to exist only in those few special cases, in which it
may be consistent with the public good. First. Goods
taken by capture in war were, by the common law, adjudged
to belong to the captor, but now goods taken from enemies
in time of war, vest primarily in the sovereign, and
they belong to the individual captors only to the extent
and under such regulations, as positive laws may prescribe.
Secondly. Another instance of acquisition by occupancy,
which still exists under certain limitations, is that
of goods casually lost by the owner, and unreclaimed,
or designedly abandoned by him; and in both these cases
they belong to the fortunate finder.
- 2d. Title by original acquisition is acquired by
accession. See Accession.
- 3d. It is acquired by intellectual labor. It consists
of literary property as the construction of maps and
charts, the writing of books and papers. The benefits
arising from such labor are secured to the owner. 1.
By patent rights for inventions. See Patents. 2. By
copyrights. See Copyrights.
The title to personal property is acquired and lost
by transfer, by act of law, in various ways. 1. By forfeiture.
2. By succession. 3. By marriage. 4. By judgment. 5.
By insolvency. 6. By intestacy.
Title is also acquired and lost by transfer by the
act of the party. 1. By gift. 2. By contract or sale.
In general, possession constitutes the criterion of
title of personal property, because no other means exist
by which a knowledge of the fact to whom it belongs
can be attained. A seller of a chattel is not, therefore,
required to show the origin of his title, nor, in general,
is a purchaser, with-out notice of the claim of the
owner, compellable to make restitution; but, it seems,
that a purchaser from a tenant for life of personal
chattels, will not be secure against the claims of those
entitled in remainder.
To the rule that possession is the criterion of title
of property may be mentioned the case of ships, the
title of which can be ascertained by the register.
To convey a title the seller must himself have a title
to the property which is the subject of the transfer.
But to this general rule there are exceptions. 1. The
lawful coin of the United States will pass the property
along with the possession. 2. A negotiable instrument
endorsed in blank is transferable by any person holding
it, so as by its delivery to give a good title "to
any person honestly acquiring it."
legislation. That part of an act of the legislature
by which it is known, and distinguished from other acts
the name of the act.
A practice has prevailed of late years to crowd into
the same act a mass of heterogeneous matter, so that
it is almost impossible to describe, or even to allude
to it in the title of the act. This practice has rendered
the title of little importance, yet, in some cases,
it is material in the construction of an act.
persons. Titles are distinctions by which a person
is known.
The constitution of the United States forbids the tyrant
by the United States, or any state of any title of nobility.
Titles are bestowed by courtesy on certain officers;
the president of the United States sometimes receives
the title of excellency; judges and members of congress
that of honorable; and members of the bar and justices
of the peace are called esquires.
Titles are assumed by foreign princes, and, among their
subjects they may exact these marks of honor, but in
their intercourse with foreign nations they are not
entitled to them as a matter of right.
literature. The particular division of a subject, as
a law, a book, and the like; for example, Digest, book
1, title 2; for the law relating to bills of exchange.
rights. The name of a newspaper a book, and the like.
The owner of a newspaper, having particular title,
has a right to such title, an an injunction will lie
to prevent its use unlawfully by another.
pleading, rights. The right of action which the plaintiff
has; the declaration must show the plaintiff's title,
and if such title be not shown in that instrument, the
defect cannot be cured by any of the future pleadings.
