Esceppa

A measure of corn. Cowell. ESCHAETAE VULGO DICUNTUR QUAE decidentlbus lis quae de rege tenent, cum non existit ratione sanguinis haeres, ad fiscum relabuntur. Those things are commonly called "escheats" which revert to the exchequer from a failure of issue in those who hold of the king, when there does not exist any heir by consanguinity. Co. Litt. 13. ESCHEAT (Fr. escheoir, to happen). —

— Under the Feudal System. An obstruction of the course of descent, and a consequent determination of the tenure by some unforeseen contingency, in which case the land naturally reverts back to the original grantor or lord of the fee. 2 Bl. Comm. 244. Escheat grows out of the doctrine of tenure, which is the foundation of the feudal system, whereby a man was not an owner of land, but only of a demesne estate therein, based on allegiance to a superior lord. Escheat is to be distinguished from "forfeiture." Forfeiture of land for crime was part of the Saxon system, and was not a consequence of any lordship paramount. It was not superseded by the introduction of the Norman tenures from which escheat resulted. "Escheat therefore operates in subordination to this more ancient and superior law of forfeiture." 2 Bl. Comm. 251. The principal grounds of escheat were 246; 4 Kent, Comm. 424. Only the first two are generally in force in the United States, the third being generally abolished by statute, and the fourth by Const. U. S. art. 1, I 9, subd. 3. See 9 Mass. 363. ■ - In Modern Law. The reversion of land to the state by reason of failure of heirs or of the owner's incapacity to hold.