Occupancy

The taking possession of those things corporeal which are without an owner, with an intention of appropriating them to one's own use. Pothler 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. de Propriete, note 20.

The Civil Code of Louisiana (article 3375), nearly following Pothler, defines occupancy to be "a mode of acthe person who took possession of it with an intention of acquiring a right of ownership in it." Sometimes used in the sense of actual possession of things corporeal. "Occupancy and possession, when applied to land, are synonymous."

21 111. 178.

A distinction is sometimes made in the use of "occupation" to indicate mere possession and "occupancy" for the acquirement of title by the taking of possession (Abbott), but it is not generally observed.