14. F was riding on the S Railway. The company charged more fare when paid on the train than if a ticket were purchased. The depot where F took the train was closed and the agent had gone home, as it was not his duty to keep the office open after six o'clock. F had no ticket and on this account was ejected from the train, because he refused to pay the higher rate. No more force was used in ejecting him from the train than was necessary and he received no bodily injury. F sued the railway company for damages. Can he recover?

CHAPTER XLIII

REAL PROPERTY

498. Property in general. Property includes whatever can be exclusively possessed or enjoyed. There are certain material objects, such as the ocean, light and air unconfined, and other forces of nature, which cannot be exclusively enjoyed, and are not property. Wild animals not in captivity or domesticated are not subject to the laws of property.

499. Corporeal and incorporeal property. As to its intrinsic character, property is either corporeal or incorporeal. Corporeal property has a substantial existence, such as land, buildings, animals, merchandise and other material objects which are capable of ownership by man. Incorporeal property does not have a substantial existence. It exists only in contemplation of law. It consists of rights growing out of the use or enjoyment of corporeal property, the most important of which are easements. An easement is the right of enjoyment in another person's land, or the right that one proprietor has in the estate of another. Among the most commonly known is the right that an owner of soil has to have it supported in its natural position by the owner of the land adjoining his; the right of way which one has over the land of another, such as a footpath or roadway; the right of one man to draw water across the land of another; the right to receive light and air across the land of another, and the right of joining colossal buildings for the support of each other.

500. Real and personal property. As to its legal character, property is either real or personal. Real property is such as is immovable. It consists of lands, buildings and anything that is permanently annexed thereto. Personal property is movable, or property that a person can take with him. Personal property is also known as chattels.

There is a distinction between real property and real estate. The latter represents the interest that one has in real property,

and not the property itself. A person may have a personal estate in real property, and that is always the case where the interest is less than a freehold estate. A real estate in real property is such an estate as in contemplation of law is permanent and without end.

A personal or leasehold estate is such an estate as in contemplation of law is not permanent and without end.

The following outline represents the principal estates in real property:

Freehold es

An estate

501. Inheritable estates, and estates for life. tates include estates for life and inheritable estates. of inheritance is one that may survive the original owner and at his death descend to his heir at law. An estate for life is one that terminates with the life of the tenant or the life of some other person.

502. Fee simple estates. A fee simple estate is an estate granted to a man and his heirs in general. It is the largest possible estate, and includes all others. The owner may alienate it or divide it up into lesser estates. If it has not been disposed of by will, at the owner's death it goes to his heirs at law. An estate in fee tail is an estate granted to a man and the heirs of his body.

503. Estate for life. A tenant who has an estate to continue during his life, or that of another person, has full use of the land and all its profits during his ownership, but is not permitted to do any act which will impair or decrease the value of the property. He can take such wood as he needs for his fire and for necessary repairs of buildings, fences and the like. He also can take minerals and ore from mines already open, but is not permitted to open new mines for that purpose.

504. Estate in dower. An estate in dower is a life estate which a surviving wife has in one-third of all the real property that her husband owned during coverture. The husband cannot defeat his wife's right of dower by selling or otherwise disposing of his property. She may release her right of dower by signing the deed with her husband when the land is sold.

Rule: If the purchaser wish a clear title, the wife must join her husband in executing the deed.

Some states give the wife dower only in land that her husband owned at the time of his death. Other states give the wife dower in her husband's equitable as well as legal estates.

505. Estate by curtesy. An estate by curtesy is the life interest which the husband takes in his wife's real property which she owned at any time during the marriage relation. One essential requisite to the vesting of this estate is that there must have been a child born alive and capable of inheriting the estate. The husband has the benefits of the whole estate, and not only a part of it, as in the case of a dower. This estate has been modified by nearly all the states, many not requiring issue to be born. It does not exist in Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Kansas, Georgia, Michigan, South Carolina, Indiana, California and Louisiana. In these states the husband takes the same interest in his wife's property as she does in his.

506. Land contract. When a purchase of land is made the transaction is the result of a contract wherein one party agrees to purchase upon certain terms and the other party agrees to sell. This agreement is called a land contract and is required by the fourth section of the Statute of Frauds to be in writing. Such a contract does not constitute a conveyance of the land but is an agreement to convey at some future time. In selling real property it is customary for the seller to furnish an abstract of title. This consists of a brief history of all the conveyances that have been made of the land up to the present time. The object of this is to show that the present owner has a clear title. It requires some time to ascertain the condition of a title as it is often necessary for a lawyer to search the records of some public office where deeds and mortgages are recorded to

obtain the necessary information to render an intelligent opinion. The purchaser is unwilling to pay over his money until he is assured that the title is clear, and the seller will not execute and deliver a deed to the purchaser until he receives the purchase price. To make the agreement binding on both parties they enter into a contract in writing called a land contract, in which the terms of the agreement are stated. The following is a form of a land contract.

507.

CONTRACT FOR PURCHASE OF LAND

AGREEMENT

This agreement, made at Baltimore, Md., this first day of June, 1915 by George R. Reynolds, and Elizabeth E. Reynolds, his wife, the parties of the first part, and A. B. Benning, the party of the second part, witnesseth:

1. That the parties of the first part agree to sell to the party of the second part, and the party of the second part agrees to buy from the parties of the first part, all that tract or parcel of land, ninetyfive and one-quarter (951) acres, more or less, known as "Woodland," situated on the Old Frederick Road, in Baltimore County, Md., which was acquired by the said Elizabeth E. Reynolds, by deed, from Swift L. Brown, et al, dated March 25, 1898.

2. That the purchase price for the ninety-five and one-quarter (951) acres shall be Nineteen Thousand and Fifty Dollars ($19,050) being at the rate of Two Hundred Dollars ($200) per acre, and of this amount, Five Hundred Dollars ($500) shall be paid at once upon the execution of this agreement, and Fourteen Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($14,500) shall be paid upon the expiration of fifteen (15) days from the date thereof, at which time the deed to the said property shall be executed and delivered. The balance of the purchase money shall then be paid as follows: Two Thousand Dollars ($2,000) thereof upon the expiration of six months from the date of the said deed, and the remainder thereof, Two Thousand and Fifty Dollars ($2,050) upon the expiration of twelve (12) months from the date of the said deer both said deferred payments to bear interest at six per cent (6%) per annum, and to be secured by a mortgage on all of the said property.