estate originally favored by the common law. No particular words of limitation were required for the creation of a life estate (as in the case of the creation of estates in fee-simple or fee-tail). Where a grant was made to a person without any words of limitation he would be held to take a life estate. The law in this respect has been changed in the United States, where today a grant without any words of limitation will convey a fee-simple (or all the grantor's interest if such interest is less than a fee-simple estate). The term "life estate" was formerly extended so as to include all freeholds not of inheritance. It, therefore, embraces an estate for an uncertain period which may continue during a life or lives. Such would be a grant to a woman during widowhood. A peculiar rule of inheritance formerly existed in the case of estates for the life of another, or estates per anter vie, as they are called. Such an estate terminates with the death or the cestui que vie and does not expire with the death of the tenant. At common law it could not descend to the heirs, for the law of descent applies only to estates of inheritance. It could not pass to the executor or administrator, for they could take only chattel interests, and this estate was a freehold. At common law it was permitted for any one who first tock possession to hold such estate, and he was called the general occupant. This right of general occupancy could only be exercised where there were no persons designated in the grant who could take as special occupants. If the grant was to A, and his heirs during the life of B the heirs would take as special occupants, to the exclusion of the general occupant. This principle has now been done away with, and such an estate would descend to the heirs of the tenant for life, who could hold it during the lifetime of the party for whose life the estate was limited. The life estate known as the estate tail after possibility of issue is extinct, has been already treated in the section on estates (tail). SECTION 22. LEGAL LIFE ESTATES. The four legal life estates are those of coverture, curtesy, dower, and homestead. All of these estates arise by operation of law independent of contract. The first three of these have already been discussed under the subject of Domestic Relations.11 The estate of coverture is now abolished in nearly all the states. The estate of curtesy still exists in some of the states but has been abolished in others. Where the estate of curtesy has been abolished the husband has generally been given the same rights of dower as the wife. Curtesy and dower are now almost entirely regulated by statute. Questions as to these estates are determined according to the laws of the place where the land is situated. A few extracts from Coke's Commentaries on the subject of curtesy and dower are here inserted: "Tenant by the curtesy of England (in Latin, per legem Angliae), is where a man taketh a wife seised in fee-simple, or in fee-tail general, or seised as heir in tail special, and hath issue by the same wife, male or female, born alive, albeit, the issue after dieth or liveth, yet if the wife dies, the husband shall hold the land during his life by the law of England. And he is called tenant by the curtesy of England, because this is used in no other realm but in England only." "See Volume IV, Subject 10. "Tenant in dower (tenens in dote) is, where a man is seised of certain lands or tenements in fee-simple, fee-tail general, or as heir in special tail, and taketh a wife and dieth; the wife, after the decease of her husband, shall be endowed of the third part of such lands and tenements as were her husband's at any time during the coverture; to have and to hold to the same wife in severalty by metes and bounds for term of her life, whether she hath issue by her husband or no, and of what age soever the wife be, so as she be past the age of nine years at the time of the death of her husband (for she must be above nine years old at the time of the decease of her husband); otherwise she shall not be endowed." 12 "Dowment ad ostium ecclesiae is where a man of full age seised in fee-simple, who shall be married to a woman, and when he cometh to the church door to be married, there, after affiance and troth plighted between them, he endoweth the woman of his whole land, or of the half, or other lesser part thereof, and there openly doth declare the quantity and certainty of the land, which she shall have for her dower. (Here be two things that the law doth delight in, viz., first, to have this and the like openly done; secondly, to have certainty, which is the mother of quiet and repose. And this word (moiety), above said, is to be "The following note is by the edi tor of the eleventh edition of even of the richest were then very inconsiderable; and before trusts were invented, which is but lately, the husband could give his wife nothing during his own life, nor could he provide for her by will, because lands could not be devised, unless it was in some particular places by the custom, till the statute of Hen. 8 (Hargr. n. 8, 30 b., (178). intended of the half in certainty, and not of the moiety in common; which clearly appeareth in that here Littleton saith, the quantity and certainty of the land.) In this case the wife, after the death of the husband, may enter into the said quantity of land of which her husband endowed her, without other assignment of any." "Dowment ex assensu patris is, where the father is seised of tenements in fee, and his son and heir apparent when he is married, endoweth his wife at the monastery or church door, of parcel of his father's lands or tenements, with the assent of his father, and assigns the quantity and parcels. (So as both in dower ad ostium ecclesiae, et ex assensu patris, the certainty must be expressed. And therefore, where books speak of a moiety, it is intended, (as hath been said), of a half in certain.) In this case, after the death of the son, the wife shall enter into some parcel, without the assignment of any. (In this case, after the death of the husband, the wife shall enter, or have a writ of dower, albeit, the father be alive.) But it hath been said in this case, that it behooveth the wife to have a deed of the father, to prove his assent and consent to this endowment. M. 44, E. 3, s. 45." "Also, there is another dower, which is called dowment de la pluis beale. And this is in case where a man is seised of forty acres of land, and he holdeth twenty acres of the said forty acres, of one by knightservice, and the other twenty acres in socage, and taketh wife, and hath issue a son, and dieth, his son being within the age of fourteen years, and the lord of whom the land is holden by knight-service entereth into twenty acres holden of him, (for he is not possessed as a guardian against whom a writ of dower Vol. VI.-4 lieth, until he doth enter. Of the wardship of the body he is possessed before seisure, because it is transitory, but he is not possessed of the land until he enter, because it is permanent. And therefore, if he doth not enter, the heir within age may assign dower, (as hath been said, and as it appeareth afterwards,) and holdeth them as guardian in chivalry during the nonage of the infant, and the mother of the infant entereth into the residue, and occupieth it as guardian against the guardian in chivalry, to be endowed of the tenements holden by knight-service, in the King's court, or other court, the guardian in chivalry may plead in such case ail this matter, and show how the wife is guardian in socage as aforesaid; and pray that it may be adjudged by the court, that the wife may endow herself de la pluis beale, i. e., of the most fair of the tenements which she hath as guardian in socage, after the value of the third part which she claims by her writ of dower, to have the tenements holden by knight-service. And if the wife cannot gainsay this, then the judgment shall be given, that the guardian in chivalry shall hold the lands holden of him during the nonage of the infant quit from the woman, &c." SECTION 23. HOMESTEAD. The estate of homestead is in reality rather an exemption from liability of being taken on execution than a true estate. Every homestead estate must also be some other kind of estate. Homestead estates are of purely statutory origin, and are governed in all respects by the provision of the statutes creating them.13 Homesteads may be claimed by a "head of family" for their benefit. It may be claimed by the husband, 1 See Statutes of the several States. |