KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

917

POSSIBILITY

POSSESSION

ed a "possessory" action, because it lies only for a plaintiff who, at the moment of the injury complained of, was in actual or con structive, immediate, and exclusive posses A possessory suit is one which is brought to recover the possession of a vessel, had under a claim of title. The Tilton, 5 Mason, 465, Fed. Cas. No. 14,054; 1 Kent, Comm. 371. In old English law. A real action which had for its object the regaining possession of the freehold, of which the demandant or his ancestors had been unjustly deprived by the present tenant or possessor thereof. In Scotch law. An action for the vindi cation and recovery of the possession of her itable or movable goods; e. g., the action of molestation. Paters. Comp. In Louisiana. An action by which one claims to be maintained in the possession of an immovable property, or of a right upon or growing out of it, when he has been dis turbed, or to be reinstated to that possession, when he has been divested or evicted. Code Proc. La. § 6. a possi bility will never be revived after the dissolu tion of its execution. 1 Rolle, 321. Post executionem status, lex non patitur possi bilitatem, after the execution of an estate the law does not suffer a possibility. 3 Bulst. 108. thing which may happen. A contingent interest in real or personal estate. Kinzie v. Win ston, 14 Fed. Cas. 651; Bodenhamer v. Welch, 89 N. C. 78; Needles v. Needles, 7 Ohio St. 442, 70 Am. Dec. 85. It is either near, (or ordinary,) as where an estate is limited to one after the death of another, or remote, (or extraordinary,) as where it is limited to a man, provided he marries a certain woman, and that she shall die and he shall marry another. —Bare possibility. The same as a "naked" possibility See infra. — Naked possibility. A bare chance or expectation of acquiring a property or succeeding to an estate in the fu ture, but without any present right in or to i't which the law would recognize as an estate or interest. See Rogers v. Felton, 98 Ky. 148, 32 S. W. 406.— Possibility coupled with an interest. An expectation recognized in law as an estate or interest, such as occurs in execu tory devises and shifting or springing uses; such a possibility may be sold or assigned.— Possi bility of reverter. This term denotes no es tate, but only a possibility to have the estate at a future time. Of such possibilities there are several kinds, of which two are usually denoted by the term under consideration, (1) the pos sibility that a common-law fee may return to the grantor by breach of a condition subject to which it was granted, (2) the possibility that a common-law fee other than a fee simple may revert to the grantor by the natural determina- sion. 1 Chit PI. 168, 169. In admiralty practice. POSSIBILITAS. Lat Possibility; a possibility. executionis Possibilitas post dissolutionem nunquam reviviscatur, POSSIBILITY. An uncertain

"Possession" is used in some of the books In the sense of property. "A possession is an hereditament or chattel." Finch, Law, b. 2, C. 3. Possession is a good title where no bet ter title appears. 20 Vin. Abr. 278. Possession is nine-tenths of the law. This adage is not to be taken as true to the full extent, so as to mean that the person in possession can only be ousted by one whose title is nine times better than his, but It places in a strong light the legal truth that every claimant must succeed by the strength of his own title, and not by the weakness of his antagonist's. Wharton. In English law, as In most systems of jurispru dence, the fact of possession raises a prima facie title or a presumption of the right of property in the thing possessed. In other words, the possession is as good as the title (about.) Brown. He is a bona fide possessor who possesses as owner by virtue of an act sufficient in terms to transfer property, the defects of which he was ignorant of. He ceases to be a bona fide possessor from the moment these defects are made known to him, or are declared to him by a suit instituted for the recovery of the thing by the owner. Civ. Code La. art 503.— Possessor mala fide. The possessor in bad faith is he who possesses as master, but who assumes this quality, when he well knows that he has no title to the thing, or that his title is vicious and defective. Civ. Code La. art 3452. claiming possession. —Possessory action. See next title.— Pos sessory claim. The title of a pre-emptor of public lands who has filed his declaratory state ment but has not paid for the land. Enoch v. Spokane Falls & N. Ry. Co, 6 Wash. 393, 33 Pac. 966.— Possessory judgment. In Scotch practice. A judgment which entitles a person who has uninterruptedly been in possession for seven years to continue his possession until the question of right he decided in due course of law. Bell.— Possessory lien. One which at taches to such articles of another's as may be at the time in the possession of the lienor, as, for example, an attorney's lien on the papers and documents of the client in his possession. Weed Sewing Mach. Co. v. Boutelle, 56 Vt 570, 48 Am. Rep. 821. An action which has for its immediate object to obtain or recover the actual possession of the sub ject-matter ; as distinguished from an action which merely seeks to vindicate the plain tiff's title, or which involves the bare right only; the latter being called a "petitory" action. An action founded on possession. Tres pass for injuries to personal property is call POSSESSION VAUT TITBE. Fr. POSSESSOR. One who possesses; one who has possession. —Possessor bona fide. POSSESSORY. Relating to possession; founded on possession; contemplating or POSSESSORY ACTION.