Site icon The Law Dictionary

TITLE

(A) estates. Evidence of the ownership of real estate. (B) Ownership of intellectual property. 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. 16. Section 2. (C) Ownership of Personal Property. 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. 17. Section 3. Title is also acquired and lost by transfer by the act of the party. 1. By gift. 2. By contract or sale. 18. 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, without 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. (D) legislation That part of an act of the legislature by which it is known, and distinguished from other acts the name of the act. 2. 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. (E) persons. Titles are distinctions by which a person is known. 3. 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. 3. 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. (F) Literature. The particular division of a subject, as a law, a book, and the like. (G) rights. The name of a newspaper a book, and the like. 3. The owner of a newspaper, having particular title, has a right to such title, an injunction will lie to prevent its use un lawfully by another. (H) 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.

Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition

The radical meaning of this word appears to be that of a mark, style, or designation; a distinctive appellation; the name by which anything is known. Thus, In the law of persons, a title is an appellation of dignity or distinction, a name denoting the social rank of the person bearing It h as “duke” or “count” So, In legislation, the title of a statute is the heading or preliminary part furnishing the name by which the act is Individually known. It is usually prefixed to the statute in the form of a brief summary of its contents; as “An act for the! prevention of gaming.” Again, the title of a patent is the short description of the Invention, which is copied in the letters patent from the inventor’s petition; e.g. “a new and Improved, method of drying and, preparing malt” Johns. Pat Man. 90. ‘ In the law of trademarks, a title may: become a subject of property; as one who has adopted a particular title for a newspaper, or other business enterprise, may, by long and; prior U8er,?pr by compliance with statutory’ provisions as to registration and notice, acquire a right to be protected in the exclusive use of it Abbott The title of a book, or any literary composition, is its name; that is, the heading or caption prefixed to it and disclosing the distinctive appellation by which it is to be known. This usually comprises a brief description of its subject matter and the name “of its author. “Title” is also used as the name of one of, the subdivisions employed In many literary works, standing intermediate between the divisions denoted by the term “books” or-“parts,” and those designated as “chapters’? and “sections,” In real property law. Title is the means whereby the owner of lands has the just possession of his property. Co. Litt. 345; 2 Bl. Comm. 195. Title is the means whereby a person’s right-to property is established. Code Ga. 1882. f 2348. Title may be defined generally to be the evidence of right which a person has to the possession of property. The word “title” certainly does not merely signify the right which a person has to the possession of property; because there are many instances in which a person may-have the right to the possession of property, and. at the same time have no’title to the same. In its ordinary legal acceptation, however, it generally seems to imply a right of possession also.. It therefore appears, on the whole, to signify-the outward evidence of the right, rather than, the mere right itself. cumstance of occupying the estate is the weakest species of evidence of the occupier’s right to such possession. The word is defined by Sir Bid ward Coke thus: Titulus est juata causa possidendi id quod nostrum est, (1 Inst. 34;) that is to say, the ground, whether purchase, sift or other such ground of acquiring; “titulus being distinguished in this respect from “modus acquirendi” which is the traditio, i.e.t delivery or conveyance of the thing. Brown. Title is when a man hath lawful cause of entry into lands whereof another is seised; and it signifies also the means whereby a man comes to lands or tenements, as by feoffment, last will and testament, etc. The word “title’1 includes a right, but is the more general word. Every right is a title, though every title is not a right for which an action lies. Jacob. See also Donovan v. Pitcher, 53 Ala. 411, 25 Am. Rep. 634; Kamphouse v. Gaffner, 73 111. 458; Pannill v. Coles, 81 Va. 383; Hunt v. Eaton, 55 Mich. 362, 21 N. W. 429; Loventhal Home Ins. Co., 112 Ala. 108, 20 South. 419, 33 L. R. A. 258, 57 Am. St. Rep. 17; Irving v. Brownell. 11 111. 414; Roberts v. Wentworth. 5 Cush. (Mass.) 193; Campfield v. Johnson, 21 N. J. Law, 85; Pratt v. Fountain, 73 Ga. 262. A title is a lawful cause or ground of possessing that which is ours. An interest, though primarily it includes the terms “estate,” “right,” and “title,” has latterly come often to mean less, and to be the same as “concern,” “share,” and the like. Merrill v. Agricultural Ins. Co., 73 N. Y. 456, 29 Am. Rep. 184.

The investigation of titles is one of the principal branches of conveyancing, and in that practice the word “title” has acquired the sense of “history,” rather than of “right” Thus, we speak of an abstract of title, and of investigating a title, and describe a document as forming part of the title to property. Sweet. In pleading. 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. Bac. Abr. “Pleas,” etc., B 1. In procedure, every action, petition, or other proceeding has a title, which consists of the name of the court in which it is pending, the names of the parties, etc. Administration actions are further distinguished by the name of the deceased person whose estate is being administered Every pleading, summons, affidavit, etc., commences with the title. In many cases it is sufficient to give what is called the “short title” of an action, namely, the court, the reference to the record, and the surnames of the flrst plaintiff and the first defendant Sweet. Absolute title. As applied to title to land, an “absolute” title means an exclusive title, or at least a title which excludes all others not compatible with it; an absolute title to land cannot exist at the same time in different persons or in different governments. Johnson v. Mcintosh, 8 Wheat 543, 588, 5 L. Ed. 681. Abstract of title. See that title. Adverse title. A title set up in opposition to or defeasance of another title, or one acquired or claimed by adverse possession. Bond for title. See BOND. Chain of title. See that title. Color of title. See that title. Covenants for title. Covenants usually inserted in a conveyance of land, on the part of the grantor, and binding him for the completeness, security, and continuance of the title transferred to the grantee. They comprise “covenants for seisin, for right to convey, against inctun-branees, for quiet enjoyment, sometimes for further assurance, and almost always of warranty.” Rawle, Cov.

Exit mobile version