Occupancy

The taking possession of those things corporeal which are without an owner, with an intention of appropriating them to one’s own use. Pothier defines it to be the title by which one acquires property in a thing which belongs to nobody, by taking possession of it with design of acquiring it. Tr. du Dr. dc Proprivtd, n.

20.

The Civil Code of Louisiana, art. 3375, nearly following Pothier, defines occupancy to be “a mode of acquiring property by whieh a thing which belongs to nobody becomes the property of the person who took possession of it with an Intention of acquiring a right of ownership in it." The basis of its origin seems to be not an instinctive bias towards the institution of property, but a presumption, arising out of the long continuation of that Institution, that everything should have an owner.

Maine, Anc. L. 249.

Occupancy is sometimes used in the sense of occupation or holding possession; indeed it has come to be Y.) 54; Act of Cong. May 29, 1830 (4 Stat. at L. 420); Weisbrod v. Daenicke, 36 Wis. 73; see Quehl v. Peterson, 47 Minn. 13, 49 N. W. 390; 12 Q. B. Div. 356; 2 id. 688; but this does not appear to be a common legal use of the term, as recognized by English authorities. To constitute occupancy, there must be a taking of a thing corporeal, belonging to nobody, with an intention of becoming the owner of it; Co. Litt. 416. A right by occupancy attaches in the finder of lost goods unreclaimed by the owner; in the captor of beasts ferw naturce, so long as ! lie retains possession; 2 Bla. Com. 403,; the owner of lands by accession, and the owner of goods acquired by confusion. It was formerly considered, also, that the captor of goods contraband of war acquired a right by occupancy; but it is now held otherwise, such goods being now held to he primarily vested in the sovereign, and as belonging to individual captors only to the extent and under such regulations as posij tive laws may prescribe; 2 Kent 290. See Prize. j