Estates General

“ Titles to estates can be made with greater facility, and it may be presumed that it will not be necessary to make the expensive and redundant conveyances which appear to be required in the transfer of real property at home. ”

“ Long terms in some states have annexed to them the properties of freehold estates. In some states estates pur autre vie descend like real property; in others an estate pur autre vie is deemed freehold only during the life of the grantee ”

“ Can an estate of many thousands of acres be developed and cultivated to its fullest extent in every corner under the guidance of one individual, who, even though he may have exceptional knowledge of farming and may use skilled agents, is nevertheless concerned with many other interests which he desires to serve? Are there any of the large estates which can be pointed to as models? ”

“ Estates less than inheritance consist of dower estates, estates curtesy, estates for the life of another, and estates for one's own life, and homestead estates. Estates less than freehold or leasehold estates consist of estates for years, from year to year, at sufferance and at will. ”

“ An ounce of fact is worth a ton of theory, and the clear result of the evidence taken before the Royal Commission was, that on the large estates, the expenditure of capital was the most generous, and the land was best developed by the application of all the improvements of modern science and mechanics. ”

“ Real estate descends to heirs; personal to executors or administrators. In ordinary language, an estate is a piece of landed property, especially one of some size. Estate duty, see Death Duties. In political history the term estate is applied to a distinct order or class in society. The term 'fourth-estate' is often used to designate the Press.
Estates of Scotland, the name given to a body of similar constitution to the English Parliament, but with important differences, the king himself, as well as his officers, being responsible to the Estates for wrongs done. ”

“ THE most usual and universal method of acquiring a title to real estates is that of alienation, conveyance, or purchase in it's limited sense: under which may be comprized any method wherein estates are voluntarily resigned by one man, and accepted by another; whether that be effected by sale, gift, marriage settlement, devise, or other transmission of property by the mutual consent of the parties. ”

“ Thus the assessors are directed in the first place to bring in certificates of the names of every person dwelling within their districts, "and of the substance and values of them in ready money, goods, chattels, and other personal estate." Every person is to be rated for personal {293} estate at the place where he shall reside, and, if not a householder, at the place where he resides at the execution of the Act, or if out of the realm, where he was last resident; "and for the better discovery of personal estates," every householder is to give an account of his lodgers. ”

“ State and local governments depend principally upon a GENERAL PROPERTY TAX, for which purpose property is divided into two kinds: REAL ESTATE, which includes land and buildings, and PERSONAL PROPERTY, which includes furniture, tools, livestock, money, and valuables of various kinds. ”

“ Estates in common can only be dissolved two ways: 1. By uniting all the titles and interests in one tenant, by purchase or otherwise; which brings the whole to one severalty: 2. By making partition between the several tenants in common, which gives them all respective severalties. For indeed tenancies in common differ in nothing from sole estates, but merely in the blending and unity of possession. ”

“ Suppose an estate, held by A for life, with remainder to his eldest son, in tail. On the eldest son attaining 21, or on marriage, the entail is barred, and the father and son join in resettling the property, cutting down the son's estate tail to a life estate, in consideration of his obtaining an immediate allowance from his father, and giving the son's eldest son in turn an estate tail. Provision is made for jointuring the widow of the tenant for life, and for raising portions for his younger children. ”

“ Estates that technically belonged to a single man, and were therefore subject to the operation of the law, had practically ceased to confer any benefit on the owner, and were pledged to other purposes. ”

“ Of FREEHOLD ESTATES, of INHERITANCE.
THE next objects of our disquisitions are the nature and properties of estates. An estate in lands, tenements, and hereditaments, signifies such interest as the tenant hath therein: so that if a man grants all his estate in Dale to A and his heirs, every thing that he can possibly grant shall pass thereby [1] . ”

“ And whereas since the making the said Statutes, of late Years, there have been several inventions for Conveying of Estates of Inheritance of Freehold, by way of Lease and Release, and also for making of Bargains and Sales thereof for long Terms of Years, without Inrollment of such Conveyances ”

“ The Land Commission may purchase any untenanted land which they consider necessary for the purchase of facilitating the resale, or redistribution, of estates purchased, or proposed to be purchased, by them, and the foregoing provisions of this Act, with respect to advances for the purchase of parcels of land comprised in estates, shall apply in the case of the sale by the Commission of any parcel of such untenanted land. ”

“ Estates therefore, with respect to this consideration, may either be in possession, or in expectancy: and of expectancies there are two sorts; one created by act of the parties, called a remainder; the other by act of law, and called a reversion.
I. Of estates in possession, (which are sometimes called estates executed, whereby a present interest passes to and resides in the tenant, not depending on any subsequent circumstance or contingency, as in the case of estates executory) there is little or nothing peculiar to be observed. All the estates we have hitherto spoken of are of this kind ”

“ Among other subjects which have been dealt with by legislation in the 19th century may be mentioned land transfer, registration, mortgage, partition, excambion, fixtures, taking of land in execution, declaration of title and apportionment. Hardly a year passes in which the land law is not altered to a greater or less degree.
Real estate at the present day is either legal or equitable, a difference resting mainly upon historical grounds. ”

“ It further provides: 'The term 'real property' as used in this compact includes lands, * * * and interests in land, * * * and any and all things and rights usually included within the said term, and includes not only fees simple and absolute, but also any and all lesser interests, such as easements, rights of way, uses, leases, licenses, and all other incorporeal hereditaments and every estate, interest or right, legal or equitable, including terms of years and liens thereon by way of judgments, mortgages, or otherwise, and also claims for damage to real estate.' N.J.S.A. 32:8-4. ”

“ It has been a desideratum for years to provide a law which would secure payment of taxes on real estate, and at the same time give the owner of the property, who may not have been prompt, some reasonable opportunity to save it. ”

“ It has control over property within its limits; and the condition of ownership of real estate therein, whether the owner be stranger or citizen, is subjection to its rules concerning the holding, the transfer, liability to obligations, private or public, and the modes of establishing titles thereto. ”

“ The Government, the state, and it may be the city or county, gives to the party providing the money what is known as bond or bonds, each of a fixed amount and bearing a fixed rate of interest, payable as a rule semi-annually.
PERSONAL PROPERTY There is no form of property so easy to assess for the purpose of taxation as real estate, that is the land and the buildings, for the last selling value of this property is a matter of public record, and then the assessors, who should be men of honesty and good judgment, are generally posted as to the value of the property under consideration. ”

“ In that case an administrator sold property of the estate, the order of sale directing that he take from the purchaser two good sureties as well as mortgages upon the property, as provided by the statute. ”

“ Owners of real estate may so order their affairs that they may be informed of tax or condemnation proceedings of which there is published notice, and the law may be framed in recognition of that fact. ”

“ Courts and jurists everywhere agree that the title to real estate is governed by the laws of the place where it is situated, the universal rule being that the title to such property can only be acquired, passed, or lost according to the lex loci rei sitoe. ”

“ But if a man grant an estate in fee-simple, reserving to himself and his heirs a certain rent; and that, if such rent be not paid at the times limited, it shall be lawful for him and his heirs to re-enter, and avoid the estate ”

“ The act provided that the duty 'shall be paid at the time when the successor, or any person in his right or on his behalf, shall become entitled in possession to his succession, or to the receipt of the income and profits thereof.' The act further provided that 'the term 'real estate' should include 'all lands, tenements, and hereditaments, corporeal and incorporeal,' and that the term 'succession' should denote 'the devolution of title to any real estate. ”

“ The state duties generally touch real estate successions as well as those to personal property. If a citizen of state A owns registered bonds of a corporation chartered by state B, which he has put for safe keeping in a deposit vault in state C, his estate may thus have to pay four succession taxes, one to state A, to which he belongs and which, by legal fiction, is the seat of all his personal property ”

“ The term 'real estate' includes all lands within the territory to which title or right to title has been acquired; all mines, minerals and quarries, in and under the land, and all rights and privileges appertaining thereto and improvements. ”

“ If any land is to be bought in his neighbourhood, there will still be a likelihood that he will become the purchaser of it. It has always been so, since the estate became the predominant one in those parts. ”

“ By section 6, 'every guardian appointed by the court, having the care of a real estate,' shall within three months procure an appointment by the orphans' court of appraisers 'to examine the estate, and estimate the annual value thereof.' By section 7, 'no guardian shall commit waste on the land ”

“ It is, perhaps, superfluous to remark that, though in the case of the land purchase it might be requisite to raise the whole, or at least some very considerable part of the purchase money before possession would be given of the estate, or operations upon it commenced, yet in regard to public works to be carried out upon the estate, the case is quite different, and it would be by no means necessary or advisable to defer the commencement of operations until the whole sum which might be ultimately required should be raised. ”

“ Where, by one clause in a will, an estate for life, or an estate in fee-simple, is given by plain words, if it appear in other parts of the will, by explanatory words or by implication, that it was the intent of the testator in such devise that the issue should take the estate in succession after him, then the life estate is enlarged in the one case, and the estate in fee reduced in the other, to an estate tail. ”

“ The well-being of every community requires that the title to real estate therein shall be secure, and that there be convenient and certain methods of determining any unsettled questions respecting it. ”

“ The General Assembly may define and classify real estate devoted to agricultural, horticultural, forest, or open space uses, and may by general law authorize any county, city, town, or regional government to allow deferral of, or relief from, portions of taxes otherwise payable on such real estate if it were not so classified, provided the General Assembly shall first determine that classification of such real estate for such purpose is in the public interest for the preservation or conservation of real estate for such uses. ”

“ And if the person claiming title to said lands shall not pay to the treasurer, for the use of the purchaser, his heirs or assigns, the sum paid by him for the lands, with interest at the rate of twenty per cent. per annum, the treasurer shall execute to the purchaser, his heirs or assigns, 'a conveyance of the lands so sold, which conveyance shall vest in the person or persons to whom it shall be given an absolute estate in fee-simple,' &c. ”

“ For purposes of this section, ``real estate brokerage activity ́ ́ shall mean ``real estate brokerage ́ ́, and ``real estate management activity ́ ́ shall mean ``property management ́ ́, as those terms were understood by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System prior to March 11, 2000. ”

“ Signing a Writing, and depositing an Earnest, or part of the Money, gives a Man a Right to the Estate he has thus purchased, and he may fairly be said to have bought the Estate, but he must have the Deeds fairly executed, sign'd, seal'd and delivered, and Livery and Seisin given in Form, before he can receive the Rents, and before he can take Possession of the Land, or the Tenants own him for their Landlord. ”

“ In carrying out the said directions, if the heirs shall desire their portions to be set off in severalty, they may designate any buildings erected by them which they wish to retain, and the portion set off to them shall include said buildings, if it can be done without prejudice to the other parts; and in that case the value of such buildings shall not be included in the aggregate valuation of the land, nor charged to the heirs in the valuation of the portion so set off to them with said buildings. ”