KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

694

LAND

LANCETI

act, 1875, a certificate is given to the registered proprietor, and similarly upon every transfer of registered land. This registration super sedes the necessity of any further registration in the register counties. Sweet.— Land court. In American law. A court formerly existing in St. Louis, Mo., having a limited territorial jurisdiction over actions concerning real prop erty, and suits for dower, partition, etc.— Land damages. See DAMAGES.— Land de partment. That office of the United States government which has jurisdiction and charge of the public lands, including the secretary of the interior and the commissioner of the gen eral land office and their subordinate officers, and being in effect the department of the in terior considered with reference to its powers and duties concerning the public lands. See U. S. v. Winona & St. P. R. Co., 67 Fed. 956, 15 C. C. A. 96; Northern Pac. R. Co. v. Bar den (C. C.) 46 Fed. 617.— Land district. A division of a state or territory, created by fed eral authority, in which is located a United States land office, with a "register of the land office" and a "receiver of public money," for the disposition of the public lands within the district. See U. S. v. Smith (C. C.) 11 Fed. 491.— Land-gabel. A tax or rent issuing out of land. Spelman says it was originally a penny for every house. This land-gabel, or land-gavel, in the register of Domesday, was a quit-rent for the site of a house, or the land whereon it stood; the same with what we now call "ground-rent" Wharton.— Land grant. A donation of public lands to a subordinate government, a corporation, or an individual; as, from the United States to a state, or to a railroad company to aid in the construction of its road.— Land offices. Governmental offices, subordinate to the general land office, establish ed in various parts of the United States, for the transaction of local business relating to the survey, location, settlement, pre-emption, and sale of the public lands. See "General land office," supra — Land-poor. By this term is generally understood that a man has a great deal of unproductive land, and perhaps is oblig ed to borrow money to pay taxes; but a man "land-poor" may be largely responsible. Mat teson v. Blackmer, 46 Mich. 397, 9 N. W. 445.— Land-reeve. A person whose business it is to overlook certain parts of a farm or es tate ; to attend not only to the woods and hedge-timber, but also to the state of the fen ces, gates, buildings, private roads, drift-ways, and water-courses; and likewise to the stocking of commons, and encroachments of every kind, as well as to prevent or detect waste and spoil in general, whether by the tenants or others; and to report the same to the manager or land steward. Enc. Lond.— Land steward. A per son who overlooks or has the management of a farm or estate.— Land tax. A tax laid upon the legal or beneficial owner of real property, and apportioned upon the assessed value of his land.— Land tenant. The person actually in possession of land; otherwise styled the "terre tenant."— Land titles and transfer act. An English statute (38 & 39 Vict. c. 87) providing for the establishment of a registry for titles to real property, and making sundry provisions for the transfer of lands and the recording of the evidences thereof. It presents some anal ogies to the recording laws of the American states.— Land waiter. In English law. An officer of the custom-house, whose duty is, up on landing any merchandise, to examine, taste, weigh, or measure it, and to take an account thereof. In some ports they also execute the officwof a coast waiter. They are likewise oc casionally styled "searchers" and are to at tend and join with the patent searcher in the execution of all cockets for the shipping of goods to be exported to foreign parts; and, in cases where drawbacks on bounties are to be paid to the merchant on the exportation of any

LANCETI. In feudal law. Vassals who were obliged to work for their lord one day In the week, from Michaelmas to autumn, either with fork, spade, or flail, at the lord's option. Spelman. LAND, in the most general sense, compre hends any ground, soil, or earth whatsoever; as meadows, pastures, woods, moors, waters, marshes, furzes, and heath. Co. Litt. 4a. The word "land" includes not only the soil, but everything attached to it, whether attached by the course of nature, as trees, herbage, and water, or by the hand of man, as buildings and fences. Mott v. Palmer, 1 N. Y. 572; Nessler v. Neher, 18 Neb. 649, 26 N. W. 471; Higgins Fuel Co. v. Snow, 113 Fed. 433, 51 C. C. A. 267; Lightfoot v. Grove, 5 Heisk. (Tenn.) 477; Johnson v. Richardson, 33 Miss. 464; Mitchell v. Warner, 5 Conn. 517; Myers v. League, 62 Fed. 659, 10 C. C. A. 571, 2 Bl. Comm. 16, 17. Land is the solid material of the earth, what ever may be the ingredients of which it is composed, whether soil, rock, or other sub stance. Civ. Code Cal. § 659. Philosophically, it seems more correct to say that the word "land" means, in law, as in the vernacular, the soil, or portion of the earth's crust; and to explain or justify such expres sions as that "whoever owns the land owns the buildings above and the minerals below," upon the view, not that these are within the extension of the term "land," but that they are so con nected with it that by rules of law they pass by a conveyance of the land. This view makes "land," as a term, narrower in signification than "realty;" though it would allow an in strument speaking of land to operate co-exten sively with one granting realty or real property by either of those terms. But many of the authorities use the expression "land" as in cluding these incidents to the soil. Abbott. — Accommodation lands. In English law. Lands bought by a builder or speculator, who erects houses thereon, and then leases portions •f them upon an improved ground-rent.— Boun ty lands. Portions of the public domain given or donated to private persons as a bounty for services rendered, chiefly for military service. —Certificate lands. In Pennsylvania, in the period succeeding the revolution, lands set apart in the western portion of the state, which might be bought with the certificates which the soldiers of that state in the revolutionary army had received in lieu of pay. Cent. Diet. —Crown lands. In England and Canada, lands belonging to the sovereign personally or to the government or nation, as distinguished from such as have passed into private owner ship.-— Demesne lands. See DEMESNE.— Do nation lands. Lands granted from the pub lic domain to an individual as a bounty, gift, or donation; particularly, in early Pennsyl vania history, lands thus granted to soldiers of the revolutionary war.— Fabric lands. In English law, lands given towards the main tenance, rebuilding, or repairing of cathedral and other churches — General land office. An office of the United States government, being a division of the department of the in terior, having charge of all executive action relating to the public lands, including their survey, sale or other disposition, and patent ing; constituted by act of congress in 1812 (Rev. St. § 446 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 255]) and presided over by an officer styled "commissioner of the general land office."— Land certificate. Upon the registration of freehold land under the English land transfer