between the parties to the action and all persons claiming under them since the commencement of the action.

Sec. 1003. IMPROVEMENTS.-If at any time before the trial the defendant shall give notice that if the verdict of the jury shall be in favor of the plaintiff's title the defendant will claim the benefit of permanent improvements that may have been placed on the property by the defendant or those under whom he claims, and shall offer evidence at the trial tending to show that he or those under whom he claims had peaceably entered into possession of the premises in controversy under a title which he or they had reason to believe and did believe to be good, and had erected valuable and permanent improvements on said property, which were begun in good faith before the commencement of the suit, the jury shall be directed, in case they find in favor of the plaintiff's title and also find that such permanent improvements were made by the defendant, or those under whom he claims, under the circumstances aforesaid, to assess

First. The damages of the plaintiff, being the clear value over and above taxes and necessary expenses of the use and occupation of the property, exclusive of said improvements, during the whole period of the occupation of the same to the date of the verdict, and also any damage done to the property, by waste or otherwise, by said parties during said occupation.

Second. The present value of any permanent improvements which may have been placed on the premises by the defendant or those under whom he claims.

Third. The present value of the property of the plaintiff without and exclusive of said improvements.-Act of June 30, 1902.

[Sec. 1003. IMPROVEMENTS.-If at any time before the trial the defendant shall give notice that if the verdict of the jury shall be in favor of the plaintiff's title the defendant will claim the benefit of permanent improvements that may have been placed on the property by the defendant or those under whom he claims, and shall offer evidence at the trial tending to show that he or those under whom he claims had peaceably entered into possession of the premises in controversy under a title which he or they had reason to believe and did believe to be good, and had erected valuable and permanent improvements on said property, which were begun in good faith before the commencement of the suit, the jury shall be directed, in case they find in favor of the plaintiff's title and also find that such permanent improvements were made by the defendant, or those under whom he claims under the circumstances aforesaid, to assess

First. The damages of the plaintiff, being the clear value over and above taxes and necessary expenses of the use and occupation of the property, exclusive of said improvements, to the defendant and those under whom he claims, during the whole period of their occupation of the same to the date of the verdict, and also any damage done to the property, by waste or otherwise, by said parties during said occupation.

Second. The present value to the plaintiffs of any permanent improvements which may have have been placed on the premises by the defendant or those under whom he claims.

Third. The present value to the defendant of the property of the plaintiff without and exclusive of the said improvements.]

Sec. 1004. If either party shall feel aggrieved by said assessment he may, within four days after the verdict, move to set the assessment aside, and the court may, for good cause shown, set the same aside and order another jury to be empaneled in the cause to make a new assessment.-Act of June 30, 1902.

[Sec. 1004. In addition to evidence offered at the trial as to said values, the jury may be directed to view the premises, and their said assessments shall be returned with their verdict and recorded with the same. If either party shall feel aggrieved

1873-06-14

by said assessment he may, within three days after the verdict, move to set the assessment aside, and the court may, for good cause shown, set the same aside and order another jury to be impaneled in the cause to make a new assessment.]

Sec. 1005. If the damages of the plaintiff, assessed as aforesaid, shall exceed the value of said permanent improvements as ascertained by the jury, the plaintiff shall be entitled to a judgment for the excess in like manner as directed in section nine hundred and ninety-five aforesaid.

Sec. 1006. If the value of said improvements, so ascertained, shall equal but not exceed the plaintiff's damages, as found by the jury, the plaintiff shall only be entitled to judgment for the recovery of the property sued for and costs.

Sec. 1007. ELECTION OF PLAINTIFF.-If the value of said improvements shall be found by the jury to exceed the damages of the plaintiff, the plaintiff may elect either to pay to the defendant the amount of said excess or to demand of the defendant the value of the plaintiff's property, without the improvements, as fixed by the jury, and tender to the defendant a deed for said property, with all the plaintiff's right, title, and interest in the same.

Sec. 1008. PAYMENT FOR IMPROVEMENTS.-If the said plaintiff shall pay to the defendant, within the time fixed therefor by the court, or, in case of his refusal to accept the same, shall pay into court for his use the amount of such excess of the value of said improvements over the damages of the plaintiff, the plaintiff shall be entitled forthwith to a judgment and writ of possession.

Sec. 1009. TENDER OF DEED BY PLAINTIFF. If the plaintiff shall tender a deed as aforesaid to the defendant and demand the value of his property without the said improvements, as found by the jury, and the defendant shall fail or refuse to pay the same within the time fixed therefor by the court, the plaintiff shall, in like manner, be entitled to a judgment and writ of possession; and in case the plaintiff shall be a minor, the court may authorize said deed to be executed by his guardian.

Sec. 1010. JUDGMENT FOR DEFENDANT.-If the plaintiff shall fail or refuse either to pay the defendant the excess of the value of the improvements over the amount of the plaintiff's damages, or to tender a deed to the defendant, as aforesaid, and accept from him the value of the plaintiff's property, exclusive of the improvements, as aforesaid, the defendant may pay said value into court for the use of the plaintiff, and thereupon the defendant shall be entitled to a judgment in his favor, but without costs, which judgment shall be a bar to any future action by the plaintiff against the defendant to recover said property for cause theretofore existing.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Subchapter I.-ESTATES.

Sec. 1011. WHAT ESTATES IN DISTRICT.-Estates in land in the District shall be estates of inheritance, estates for life, estates for years, estates at will, and estates by sufferance.

Sec. 1012. FEE SIMPLE ESTATES.-All estates of inheritance, including such as were formerly estates tail, shall be adjudged estates in fee simple.

Sec. 1013. An estate in fee simple may be either absolute or qualified, as to one and his heirs during an existing condition of things of uncertain duration.

Sec. 1014. FREEHOLDS.-Estates of inheritance and estates for life shall continue to be denominated freeholds, and estates for years shall be chattels real; estates at will or by sufferance shall be chattel interests, but shall not be liable, as such, to sale under execution; and all estates may be subject to conditions precedent or subsequent.

Sec. 1015. ESTATES PUR AUTRE VIE.-An estate for the life of a third person, whether limited to heirs or otherwise, shall be deemed a freehold only during the life of the grantee or devisee, but after his death it shall be deemed a chattel real and be a part of his personal

estate.

Sec. 1016. ESTATES CLASSIFIED. in expectancy.

Estates are either in possession or

Sec. 1017. An estate in possession exists when the owner has an immediate right to the possession of the land.

Sec. 1018. An estate in expectancy is either a reversion or a future estate.

Sec. 1019. REVERSIONS.-A reversion is the residue of an estate left in the grantor who has conveyed, or in the heirs of the devisor who has devised a particular estate less than his own, and which residue. returns to his or their possession on the expiration of the particular estate.

Sec. 1020. FUTURE ESTATES. -A future estate is one limited to commence at a future day, either without the intervention of a precedent estate or after the expiration or determination of a precedent estate created at the same time and by the same conveyance or devise.

Sec. 1021. If it is to commence upon the full expiration of such precedent estate, it is a remainder and may be transferred by that If it is to commence on a contingency which, if it happen, will abridge or determine such precedent estate before its expiration, it shall be known as a conditional limitation.

name.

Sec. 1022. VESTED AND CONTINGENT FUTURE ESTATES.- -A future estate is vested when there is a person in being who would have an immediate right to the possession of the land upon the expiration of the intermediate or precedent estate, or upon the arrival of a certain period or event when it is to commence in possession. It is contingent when the person to whom or the event upon which it is limited to take effect in possession or become a vested estate is uncertain.

Sec. 1023. PERPETUITIES.-Except in the case of gifts or devises to charitable uses, every future estate, whether of freehold or leasehold, whether by way of remainder or without a precedent estate, and whether vested or contingent, shall be void in its creation which shall suspend, or may by possibility suspend, the power of absolute alienation of the property, so that there shall be no person or persons in being by whom an absolute fee in the same, in possession, can be conveyed, for a longer period than during the continuance of not more than one or more lives in being and twenty-one years thereafter.

Sec. 1024. CHATTELS REAL.-The provisions aforesaid as to future estates shall apply to limitations of chattels real as well as to freehold estates, so that the absolute ownership of a term for years and power to dispose of the same shall not be suspended for a longer period than the absolute power of alienation in respect to a fee simple.

Sec. 1025. WHAT ESTATES CREATED BY DEED OR WILL.-Subject to the provisions aforesaid, a freehold estate as well as a chattel real may be created by deed or will to commence at a future day, absolutely or conditionally; an estate for life may be created in a term for years and a remainder limited thereon; a remainder of freehold or for years, either vested or contingent, may be created expectant on the determination of a term for years, and a fee may be limited on a fee upon a contingency which must happen, if at all, within the period herein prescribed.

Sec. 1026. ALTERNATIVE FUTURE ESTATES.-Two or more future estates may be created to take effect in the alternative, so that if the first in order shall fail to vest the next in succession be substituted for it and take effect accordingly.

may

Sec. 1027. REMAINDER TO HEIRS.—Where a remainder shall be limited to the heirs or heirs of the body of a person to whom a life estate in the same premises shall be given, the persons who, on the termination of the life estate, shall be the heirs or the heirs of the body of such tenant for life shall be entitled to take in fee simple as purchasers by virtue of the remainder so limited.

Sec. 1028. POSTHUMOUS CHILDREN.—Where a future estate shall be limited to heirs, or issue, or children, posthumous children shall be entitled to take in the same manner as if living at the death of their parent; and a future estate depending on the contingency of the death of any person without heirs, or issue, or children shall be defeated by the birth of a posthumous child of such person.

Sec. 1029. EXPECTANT ESTATES NOT TO BE DEFEATED. No expectant estate can be defeated or barred by any alienation or other act of the owner of the intermediate or precedent estate, nor by any destruction of such precedent estate, by disseizin, forfeiture, surrender, merger, or otherwise, except when such destruction is expressly provided for or authorized in the creation of such expectant estate; nor shall an

expectant estate thus liable to be defeated be on that ground adjudged void in its creation.

Sec. 1030. EXPECTANT ESTATE ALIENABLE.-Expectant estates shall be descendible, devisable, and alienable in the same manner as estates in possession.

Sec. 1031. TENANCIES IN COMMON AND JOINT TENANCIES.-Every estate granted or devised to two or more persons in their own right, including estates granted or devised to husband and wife, shall be a tenancy in common, unless expressly declared to be a joint tenancy; but every estate vested in executors or trustees, as such, shall be a joint tenancy, unless otherwise expressed.

Sec. 1032. ESTATES FOR YEARS. An estate for a determinate period of time is an estate for years.

Sec. 1033. ESTATES FROM YEAR TO YEAR. -An estate expressed to be from year to year shall be good for one year only.

Sec. 1034. ESTATES BY SUFFERANCE.-All estates which by construction of the courts were estates from year to year at common law, as where a tenant goes into possession and pays rent without an agreement for a term, or where a tenant for years, after the expiration of his term, continues in possession and pays rent and the like, and all verbal [hirlings] hireings by the month or at any specified rate per month, shall be deemed estates by sufferance.

Sec. 1035. ESTATES FROM MONTH TO MONTH, AND SO FORTH.-An estate may be from month to month or from quarter to quarter, or, as otherwise expressed, it may be by the month or by the quarter, if so expressed in writing.

Sec. 1036. ESTATES AT WILL. -An estate at will is one held by the joint will of lessor and lessee, and which may be terminated at any time, as herein elsewhere provided, by either party; and such estate shall not exist or be created except by express contract: Provided, however, That in case of a sale of real estate under mortgage or deed of trust or execution, and a conveyance thereof to the purchaser, the grantor in such mortgage or deed of trust, execution defendant, or those in possession claiming under him, shall be held and construed to be tenants at will, except in the case of a tenant holding under an unexpired lease for years, in writing, antedating the mortgage or deed of

trust.

All the provisions of this subchapter shall apply to personal property generally except where from the nature of the property they are inapplicable.

Subchapter II.-POWERS.

Sec. 1037. DEFINITION.-A power is an authority to do some act in relation to lands or the creation of estates therein or of charges thereon which the owner granting or reserving such power might himself lawfully perform.

Sec. 1038. GENERAL POWER.-A power is general where it authorizes the alienation in fee, by means of a conveyance, will, or charge, of the lands embraced in the power to any alienee whatever.