Estate

Estate, in the law of England, is the state or legal relation in which a person stands to his property, or, in other words, the quantity of interest he has in it. The first division of estates is into legal and equitable. By the former is signified the estate which a man has by the common law; by the latter, the interest which has been created by the operation of a court of equity (see EQUITY, USES, TRUST). Estates in land may be considered with reference to the quantity of the estate, the time of enjoyment, and the number of persons who may unite in the enjoyment. Under the first head, estates are either freehold or less than freehold. Freehold estates, again, are divided into freeholds of inheritance, or Fees (q.v.), and freeholds not of inheritance, or for life. An estate for life may be for the life of the person to whom it is granted, or for that of another person, or for more than one life. A person holding an estate for the life of another is called tenant pur autre vie. An estate pur autre vie granted to a man and his heirs descends, in case of the death of the tenant intestate, during the life for which he holds to his heir. An estate by the courtesy of England, and an estate in dower, are estates for life. A conveyance by deed to A. B., without words giving him an estate of inheritance, makes the grantee tenant for life. An estate to a woman during her widowhood, or to a man until the occurrence of a specified event, as till he receive a benefice, will be construed to be an estate for life, but the estate is determinable on the event happening. Tenants for life are entitled to take Estovers (q.v.), but they must not commit Waste (q.v.). The representatives of a tenant for life are also usually entitled to take the emblements on the expiry of the term. Estates less than freehold are called also chattels real. This species of estate, on the death of the tenant, passes, like other Chattels (q.v.), to the executor, and not to the heir. They are divided into estates for years, estates at will, and estates on sufferance (see LEASES). Estates, with reference to the time of their enjoyment, may be either in possession or in expectancy. An estate in possession comprehends not only an estate in the actual occupation of the tenant, but one from which he has been wrongfully ousted. In this latter case the law regards the rightful tenant as having the actual estate, to which is attached the right of entry. An estate in expectancy may be either in Reversion (q.v.) or Remainder (q.v.). Estates of this character form a large portion of the rights to land in England, and are the subject of some of the most subtle learning of the English law. With reference to the number of persons entitled to the enjoyment, estates may be in severalty, in joint-tenancy, in co-parcenary, or in common. An estate in severalty is where the sole right to the estate is in a single person. See CO-PARCENARY, LAND-LAWS, REAL, TENANCY IN COMMON.