Possession

Control or custody of a thing; detention of any thing as one's own, and for enjoyment; occupation, actual or constructive, of subjects of property. The word possession, applied to lands, may mean an actual residence on the land, or such cultivation, use, and enjoyment of the same, by visible acts of ownership, as would give notice to the owner and others of the adverse possession of the land.

Kimbro V. Hamilton, 28 Tex. 560.

The " immediate right of possession " spoken of by the Michigan statute relative to the nature and qualities of estates in real property, in defining estates in possession, does not mean the absolute right of possession as against all possible rights or powers given for special purposes, and which have not been, but may or may not be, exerted or required for the accomplishment of such special purposes. The owner may be said to have an " estate in possession," unless there be some intervening estate in the land, the owner of which has a present paramount right of possession as against him.

Campau v. Campau, 19 Mich. 116, 123.

The entering upon, ditching, and making roads in a cypress swamp, for the purpose of getting shingles therein, and cutting down the timber-trees and making shingles out of them, is, in law, a possession of the swamp.

Tredwell v. lleddick, 1 Ired. L. 56.

In a stream not navigable, keeping up fish-traps therein, erecting and repairing dams across it, and using it every year, during the entire fishing season, for the purpose of catching fish, constitute an unequivocal possession thereof.

Williams V. Buchanan, 1 Ired. L. 535.

The phrase uninterrupted possession does not convey the idea of continued, incessant, unceasing possession, but that the occupant has not been interfered with or evicted by the assertion of an adverse title. Eeed v. Earnhart, 10 Ired. L. 516. cising continuous public acts of ownership, constitute actual possession which the courts will maintain in an action of trespass quare dattsum /regit, against a party intruding without superior title.

Mc Lean v. Farden, 61 HI. 106.

The occupation of pine-land, by annually making turpentine on it, is such an actual possession as will oust a constructive possession by one claiming merely under a superior paper title.

Bynum v. Carter, 4 Ired. L. 310.

Where a party takes possession of a tract of land, claiming a moiety as locator, such possession is not adverse, and, if it continues more than twenty years, does not operate as a bar.

Oldhams v. Jones, 5 B. Mon. 458.

Cutting trees on a tract of land susceptible of other uses and enjoyment, and feeding hogs on it, under color of title, for seven years, do not constitute such a possession as will bar an entry. Loftin ti.

Cobb, 1 Jmes L. 406.

Residence, though necessary to constitute a settlement, is not necessary to adverse possession. The latter may be, by cultivation and enclosure, by cultivation without enclosure, or by enclosure without cultivation; and in every case without regard to the design of the occupant, further than that it be to resist an entry by any one else.

Stephens v. Leach, 19 Pa. St. 262.

When a man enters upon, improves, fences, and occupies part of another man's tract of land, and has the boundaries of his claim surveyed and marked, including woodland not enclosed, and for twenty-one years openly and exclusively uses the woodland as his own, in connection with his improvement, and as farmers ordinarily use their woodland, this is an actual possession of the woodland, and excludes the constructive possession which the law usually attributes to the title, and to the owner's actual possession of the rest of his tract.

Wolf V. Ament, 1 Grant Cas. 150.

Occupying and cultivating land, and claiming title, is adverse possession.

Robinson V. Douglass, 2 Aik. 364.

The claiming title, and payment of taxes upon unoccupied lands, is no adverse possession. Reed e>.

Field, 15 Vt. 672.

Consult Adverse

Possession in statutes imposing a punishment for " having in possession " burglar's tools or other implements of crime cannot be limited to manual touch or personal custody. One who deposits the prohibited articles in a place of concealment may be deemed to have them in his possession. One who leaves them in care of his wife may be deemed to have them in possession jointly with her.

State v. Potter, 42 Vt. 495.

Secreting the coin within the county and having within one's control is a possession of counterfeit coin, within the meaning of Iowa code, § 2634. State v. Washburn, 11 Iowa, 245. exercise it by himself, or by another who keeps or exercises it in his behalf. But the word implies exclusive enjoyment. Redfield u.

Utica & Syracuse R. R. Co., 25 Barb, 54.

There are two kinds of possession: in fact, and by relation of law. Possession in fact is where the party is in the actual use and enjoyment of the land or other real estate at the commission of the injury. Possession by relation of law is where the party in actual possession becomes dispossessed, and is afterwards restored by reentry, or in some other lawful manner; he is then, during the period which has intervened between the dispossession and the restoration, deemed in possession by relation of law. Possession by relation is not so efficacious as possession in fact; for, while the latter affects all persons and reaches all purposes, the former extends, according to some of the books, only to some purposes and persons.

Bacon v. Sheppard, 11 N. J. L. 197.

The word possession, in the New York factor's act, means such control of or dominion over merchandise as enables a factor rightfully to take it into actual custody, without the aid of any new authority or document furnished by the owners; in contradistinction to a right derived from documentary evidence furnished by the owners or obtained by factors, by means of their right of possession of the goods.

Pegram V. Carson, 10 Bosw. 505.

Possession money

The man whom the sheriff puts in possession of goods taken under a writ oi fieri facias is entitled, whilst he continues so in possession, to a certain sum of money per diem, which is thence termed possession money. The amount is 3s. M. per day, if he is boarded, or 5s. per day, if he is not boarded.

Brmm.