ABATEMENT OF FREEHOLD

This takes place where a person dies seised of an inheritance, and, before the heir or devisee enters, a stranger, having no right, makes a wrongful entry, and gets possession of it. Such an entry is technically called an “abatement,” and the stranger an “abator.” It is, in fact, a figurative expression, denoting that the rightful possession or freehold of the heir or devisee is overthrown by the unlawful intervention of a stranger. Abatement differs from intrusion, in that it is always to the prejudice of the heir or immediate devisee, whereas the latter is to the prejudice of the reversioner or remainder man; and disseisin differs from them both, for to disseise is to put forcibly or fraudulently a person seised of the freehold out of possession. 1 Co. Inst 277a; 3 Bl. Comm. 166; Brown v. Burdick, 25 Ohio St 268. By the ancient laws of Normandy, this term was used to signify the act of one who, having an apparent right of possession to an estate, took possession of it immediately after the death of the actual possessor, before the heir entered. (Howard, Anciennes Lois des Frangais, tome 1, p. 539.)