tenancy by the entirety
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 281 U.S. 497 - Tyler v. United States · 1930Most cited · 749 citing opinions
In legal contemplation, the tenants constitute a unit; neither can dispose of any part of the estate without the consent of the other; and the whole continues in the survivor.
How the Supreme Court has restated “tenancy by the entirety”
Each Supreme Court definition of “tenancy by the entirety,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “tenancy by the entirety”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “tenancy by the entirety” — 1,282 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1930–1939
An estate by the entirety is held by the husband and wife in single ownership, by a single title. They do not take by moieties, but both and each take the whole estate, that is to say, the entirety. The tenancy results from the common-law principle of marital unity; and is said to be sui generis. Upon the death of one of the tenants 'the survivor does not take as a new acquisition, but under the original limitation, his estate being simply freed from participation by the other.
A tenancy by the entirety 'is essentially a joint tenancy, modified by the common law theory that husband and wife are one person.