Title in United Kingdom

Concept of Title

The following is an old definition of Title [1], a term which has several meanings:1. The means whereby the owner of land has the just possession of his property. Titula est justa causa possidendi id quod nostruvfi est: a title is the just right of possessing that which is our own; the lawful cause or ground of possessing that which is ours. In ordinary acceptation, the right to or ownership in land. Having title to a farm means owning it; which corresponds with the legal meaning. He who has possession, the right of possession, and the right of property has a perfect title. A person may have a title to property although he is not the absolute owner. If he has the actual or constructive possession, or the right of possession, he has a title. Within the meaning of the rule that a tenant is estopped from alleging that his landlord has no ” title,” means paramount right of possession. In modern use includes personalty as well as realty, and may be defined to be such claim to the exclusive control and enjoyment of a thing as the law will enforce. The word points to the right rather than to the actuality of ownership. In the definition in old books ” means ” seems to refer to remedies or acts for obtaining possession. Titles are, or have been, acquired by abandonment, accession, accretion, confusion, contract, creation, descent, devise or bequest, eminent domain, escheat, execution, forfeiture, gift, grant, judicial decree, marriage, occupancy, possession, prerogative, prescription, purchase, succession, will, qsee, in this resource, the term Absolute title. This cannot exist at the same time in different persons or in different governments. To be ” absolute ” it must be exclusive, or, at least, exclude all others not compatible with it. Abstract or brief of title. See Abstract. Adverse title. See Possession, Adverse; Warranty; Water. Apparent title. See Apparent. Doubtful title. See Marketable Title. Good title; perfect title; unincumbered title. A “perfect title” is a title good in law and in equity. A “good unincumbered title” imports an estate without any prior claim, to continue forever, and having no qualification or condition in regard to its continuance. When an agreement to convey a title is silent as to the character of the title, and there is no evidence indicating the cliaracter intended, an, implication arises that the title is to be a good one, and therefore free from incumbrance. See Marketable Title; Deed. Legal title. A right in the nature of ownership cognizable by, and enforceable in, a court of law. Equitable title. A title available or enforcible in a court of equity. Thus, the legal title to land conveyed remains in the vendor until all the purchase-money has been paid; while the vendee acquires an equitable title only. As the payments by the vendee increase his equitable interest increases; and when the price has been fully paid the entire title is vested in him and he can compel a conveyance of the legal title. The vendor is a trustee of the legal title to the extent of the payments. A legal title to real estate acquired subsequent to the lease by a lessor owning the equitable title inures to the benefit of the lessee. In the Federal courts, a party who claims a legal title must proceed at law; and a party whose title or claim is equitable must follow the forms and rules of equity as prescribed by the Supreme Court under the act of 1842. ” The mistake in this case does not appear to have been discovered by Smith [who purchased from the United States a certain S. E. H section of land, erro- neously described by the register as the S. W. 1/4 section, which had been previously entered by another] or by those claiming under him, until after Widdicombe had got his patent, and after they had been in the undisputed enjoyment for thirty-five years of what they supposed was their own property under a completed purchase with the price fully paid. Widdicombe, being a purchaser with full knowledge of their rights, was in law a purchaser in bad faith; and as their equities were superior to his they were enforceable against him, even though he had secured a patent vesting the legal title in himself. Under such circumstances, a court of chancery can charge him as a trustee, and compel a conveyance which shall convert the superior equity into a paramount legal title. The cases to this effect are many and uniform. The holder of a legal title in bad faith must always yield to a superior equity. As against the United States his title may be good, but not as against one who had acquired a prior right from the United States in force when his purchase was made and under which his patent issued. The patent vested him with, the legal title, but it did not determine the equitable relations between him and third persons.” See Lien, Equitable, Vendor’s; Tacking. Marketable title. Such title as a court of equity would require a purchaser to accept. A purchaser cannot be compelled to accept a doubtful title, or one which the court cannot warrant to him; the question being, not whether the title is good, but whether it is clearly so. A title is ” doubtful” when its condition invites litigation. A purchaser cannot be compelled to take such a title, if he thereby exposes himself to a law-suit. When doubts are raised by extrinsic circumstances, which neither the purchaser nor the court can satisfactorily investigate for want of means, the court will refuse its aid;when the means of inquiry are offered, and the result is satisfactory, performance will be enforced. A possibility of a contest is not sufficient; it must be considerable and rational; such doubt as would induce a prudent man to pause and hesitate, and as would produce a bona fide hesitation in the mind of a chancellor. Equity will not decree specific performance where that would compel the defendant to accept a doubtful title. The purchaser has a right to a marketable title. He may not refuse to perform the contract because a fanciful or speculative doubt as to its validity may be suggested. But a title open to a reasonable doubt is not marketable, and, unless the defect is such that substantial justice can be done by allowing compensation, the purchaser will not be subjected to the contingency of being disturbed, or of having his title successfully challenged when he comes to part with it. In such actions, unless the party is present in whom the outstanding right is vested, the court will not undertake to cure infirmities by deciding a disputed question, of fact or law, but will refuse to decide for or against the validity of the title. The doctrine of constructive notice has been most generally applied to the examination of titles to real estate. It is the duty of a purchaser to investigate the title of the vendor, and to take notice of any adverse rights or equities of third persons which he has the means of discovering and as to which he is put on inquiry. If he makes all the inquiry which due diligence requires, and still fails to discover the outstanding right, he is excused; but if he fails to use due diligence, he is chargeable, as a matter of law, with notice of the facts which the inquiry would have disclosed. See Inquiry, 1. Paper title. ” Color of title ” is not synonymous with “claim of title:” for to the former a paper title is requisite, while the latter may exist wholly in parol. Title-deed. Deeds evidencing one’s right to land are his ” title-deeds,” otherwise called his muniments (see, in this resource, the term) of title. An equitable mortgage is effected by a deposit of title-deeds. A mortgagee who allows his mortgagor to retain the title-deeds, and to raise money on a second mortgage by concealing the first mortgage, will be postponed to the second incumbrancer. See Mortgage, Equitable. See generally Acquike; Chain; Cloud; Color; Conveyance; Covenant; Descend; Devolution; Ejectment; Failure; Pass, 1, 5; Patent; Possession; Prescription, 3; Quiet; Relation; Seisin; Slander; Tenant; Transfer.2. As applied to a literary production: a heading, caption, name or designation given to the document or work as a whole or to one of its larger divisions. Title of a book. In copyright law, the name by which a book or other literary composition is known. The theory of the copyright statutes is that every boolc must have a.title, a name or designation – something short and convenient by which it may be identified; that that name must appear on it, or in it, when published, on a title-page or its equivalent; and that such title or page must have been deposited, before the publication of the book, in the designated office. The copyright to be protected is the copyright in the book. A printed copy of the title of the book is required to be deposited, before publication, only as a designation of the book to be copynghted. The title is ” a mere appendage, which only identifies, and frequently does not in any way describe, the literary composition itself, or represent its character.” The title alone is never protected separate from the book which it designates. See Copyright; Printed. Title of a cause. The distinctive designation of a, cause, giving the style of the court, the venue, names of plaintiff or petitioner and defendant, and, perhaps, also the calendar or docket number of the case. Title of a paper or pleading. The title of an afifidavit, of a declaration, pleading or other paper filed, or to be filed, in a suit, means the title of the proceeding as written at the head of such paper. Whence ” to entitle ” a case, cause, pleading. See Caption; Venue; Versus. Title of an act, bill, or statute. The language, at the beginning, in which its general nature or purpose is declared or indicated, and by which it is distinguished from other statutes, or from other chapters of the same statute-book, or even from other parts or chapters of the same enactment or bill. The title of an act furnishes little aid in the construction of its provisions. Formerly, in the English courts, it was regarded as no part of the act: it was framed by a clerk of the House in which the act originated, as a convenient means of reference. At the present day it constitutes a formal part of the act: it cannot be used to extend or to restrain positive provisions contained in the body of the act. Where the meaning of these is doubtful, resort may be had to it, but even then it has little weight: it is seldom the subject of special consideration by the legislature. Compare Preamble.The constitutions of the States provide that no bill or act, except general appropriation bills, shall contain more than one subject, and that that subject shall be clearly expressed in the title of the bill or act. The title of a statute need not index all the contents of the enactment, but it should fairly suggest the related subjects – give such notice of the general subject as will lead to inquiry into the contents. Provisions not covered by the title will be declared void. If a supplement is germane to the original act it may suffice to style it a ” supplement ” to such original. The purpose is to secure a separate consideration of every subject presented for legislative action, and a conspicuous declaration of that action. Substantial unity in the statutable object is all that is required. If the several sections are germane to the subject- matter, which is described in the title, the statute embraces a single subject. The title need not give an abstract of the contents nor specify the means by which the general purpose is to be accomplished. Particular sections may be rejected, if the integrity of the act remains. The provision is directed against the practice of embodying numerous objects in one act, thus passing measures which would not be discovered by reading the title only. The requirement that all bills shall be read at length before final passage gives an additional safeguard against fraudulent legislation, and makes it unnecessary, except in special cases, to construe the provision with strictness. The objections should be grave, the conflictbetween the statute and the constitution palpable, before the judiciary disregard anenactmeut upon the sole ground that it embraces more than one object, or, if but one object, that it is not sufficiently expressed by the title. The purpose is met when a law has but one general object, fairly indicated by the title. To require every end and means necessary or convenient for the accom- plishment of the general object to be provided for by a separate act relating to that alone wotild be unreasonable and render legislation impossible. See Grant, 3. 3., Such right of action as a plaintiff relies upon, alleges or proves. See Declaration. 4. In the law of trade-marks, a title may become the subject of property; as, by long and prior use or by registration and notice under statutes. See Trade-mark. 5. As used with reference to the naval and military service, “title” is the name by which an office, or the holder of an office, is designated and distinguished, and by which the officer has a right to be addressed. ” Grade ” is one of the divisions or degrees in the particular branch of the service, according to which officers therein are arranged; “rank “is the position of officers of different grades or of the same grade, in point of authority, precedence, or the hke, of one over another. Sometimes ” rank ” is used as synonymous with “grade,” and the title of an officer (e. g., admiral, or vice-admiral) may denote both his grade and rank, see, in this resource, the term 6. An addition to one’s name; as, a title of office, of honor, or nobility. See Addition. In England, titles of nobility are hereditary. ” No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person Holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept any present. Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” ” No State shall . grantany Title of Nobility.” Titles of nobility were thought inconsistent with the theory of republican institutions, which is perfect equality of rights. The first provision quoted anticipates and prevents foreign influence in the affairs of government. See Minister, 3; Naturalization, “Fourth;” Bank.

Resources

Notes and References

1. Meaning of Title provided by the Anderson Dictionary of Law (1889)