widow of any such grantee or devisee of such estate shall have her dower in the premises in like manner as if the said grantee or devisee had died seized thereof in fee simple; and provided also, that where any person shall marry a woman being a grantee or devisee and seized of such estate, the said husband, after the death of his said wife, shall have his curtesy in the said lands and tenements, if there be issue of the marriage, in like manner as if said wife had died seized of an estate of inheritance in fee tail of the premises.

MASS. PUB. STAT., 1882, c. 120, § 15. A person actually seised of lands as tenant in tail may convey such lands in fee simple by a deed in common form, in like manner as if he were seised thereof in fee simple; and such conveyance shall bar the estate tail and all remainders and reversions expectant thereon.

$ 17. Equitable estates tail, in possession or remainder, and all remainders and reversions expectant thereon, may be barred in the same manner as legal estates tail and the remainders and reversions expectant thereon.

CONN. GEN. L., § 2952. No estate in fee simple, fee tail, or any less estate, shall be given by deed or will, to any persons but such as are, at the time of making such deed or will, in being, or to their immediate issue or descendants, and every estate given in fee tail shall be an absolute estate in fee simple, to the issue of the first donee in tail.

CHAPTER IV.

ESTATES FOR LIFE.

(a) Conventional Life Estates.

LIT., § 56. Tenant for term of life is where a man letteth lands or tenements to another for terme of the life of the lessee, or for terme of the life of another man. In this case the lessee is tenant for terme of life. But by common speech he which holdeth for terme of his owne life, is called tenant for terme of his life; and he which holdeth for terme of another's life, is called tenant for terme of another man's life (pur terme d'auter vie).

§ 57. And it is to be understood, that there is feoffor and feoffee, donor and donee, lessor and lessee. Feoffor is properly where a man enfeoffes another in any lands or tenements in fee simple, he which maketh the feoffment is called the feoffor, and he to whom the feoffment is made is called the feoffee. And the donor is properly where a man giveth certaine lands or tenements to another in taile, he which maketh the gift is called the donor, and he to whom the gift is made is called the donee. And the lessor is properly where a man letteth to another lands or tenements for terme of life, or for terme of years, or to hold at will, he which maketh the lease is called lessor and he to whom the lease is made is called lessee. And every one which hath an estate in any lands or tenements for terme of his owne or another man's life, is called tenant of freehold, and none other of a lesser estate can have a freehold; but they of a greater estate have a freehold; for he in fee simple hath a freehold, and tenant in taile hath a freehold, &c.

Co. LIT., 42, a. If a man grant an estate to a woman dum sola fuit, or durante viduitate, or quamdiu se bene gesserit, or to a man and a woman during the coverture, or as long as the grantee dwell in such a house, or so long as he pay £10, &c., or untill the grantee be promoted to a benefice, or for any like incertaine time, which time, as Bracton saith, is tempus indeterminatum: in all these cases, if it be of lands or tenements, the lessee hath in judgment of law an estate for life determinable, if livery be made; and if it be of rents, advowsons, or any other thing that lie in grant, he hath a like estate for life by the delivery of the deed, and in count or pleading he shall alledge the lease, and conclude that by force thereof he was seised generally for terme of his life.

If a man make a lease of a manor that at the time of the lease made is worth £20 per annum to another until £100 be paid, in this case, because the annuall profits of the manor are incertaine, he hath an estate for life, if livery be made, determinable upon the levying of the £100. But if a man grant a rent of £20 per annum untill £100 be paid, there he hath an estate for five yeares, for there it is certaine, and depends upon no incertainty. And yet in some cases a man shall have an incertaine interest in lands or tenements, and yeť neither an estate for life, for yeares, or at will. As if a man by his will in writing devise his lands to his executors for payment of debts and untill his debts be paid; in this case the executors have but a chattell, and an incertaine interest in the land until his debts be paid; for if they should have it for their lives, then by their death their estate should cease, and the debts unpaid; but being a chattell, it shall go to the executors of executors for the payment of his debts; and so note a diversity betweene a devise and a conveyance at the common law in his lifetime. And tenant by statute merchant, by statute staple, and by elegit, have incertaine interests in lands or tenements, and yet they have but chattels and no freehold, whose estates are created by divers acts of parliament.

A., tenant in fee simple, makes a lease of lands to B., to have and to hold to B. for terme of life, without mentioning for whose life it shall be, it shall be deemed for terme of the life of the lessee, for it shall be taken most strongly against the lessor, and as hath beene said an estate for a man's own life is higher than for the life of another.

41, b. "Ou per terme de vie d'un auter home." Now it is to be understood, that if the lessee in that case dieth, living cesty que vie (that is, he for whose life the lease was made), he that first entreth shall hold the land during that other man's life, and he that so entreth is within Littleton's words, viz., tenant per auter vie, and subject to the payment of the rent reserved, and is in law called an occupant (occupans), because his title is by his first occupation. And so if tenant for his owne life grant over his estate to another, if the grantee dyeth there shall be an occupant. In like manner it is of an estate created by law; for if tenant by the curtesie or tenant in dower grant over his or her estate, and the grantee dieth, there shall be an occupant. But against the king there shall be no occupant, because nullum tempus occurrit regi. And therefore no man shall gain the king's land by priority of entry. There can be no occupant of any thing that lyeth in grant, and that cannot passe without deed, because every occupant must claime by a que estate, and averre the life of cesty que vie. It were good to prevent the incertainty of the estate of the occupant to adde these words (to have and to hold to him and his heires during the life of cesty que vie), and this shall prevent the occupant and yet the lessee may assigne it to whom he will; or if he hath already an estate for another man's life without these words, then it were good for him to assigne his estate to divers men and their heires during the life of cesty que vie.

ID., 251, a. It is to be observed, that a forfeiture may be made by the alienation of a particular tenant, two manner of wayes; either in pais, or by matter of record. In pais, of lands and tenements which lie in livery, where a greater estate passeth by livery than the particular tenant may law

fully make, whereby the reversion or remainder is devested, as here in the example that Littleton putteth when tenant for life alieneth in fee, which must bee understood of a feoffment, fine or recoverie by consent. If tenant for life, and hee in the remainder for life in Littleton's case, hath joyned in a feoffment in fee, this had beene a forfeiture of both their estates, because hee in the remainder is particeps injuriae. And so it is if hee in the remainder for life had entred, and disseised tenant for life, and made a feoffment in fee, this had beene a forfeiture of the right of his remainder.

A particular estate of anything that lies in grant cannot be forfeited by any grant in fee by deed. As if tenant for life or yeares of an advowson, rent, common, or of a reversion or remainder of land, by deed grant the same in fee, this is no forfeiture of their estates, for that nothing passes thereby, but that which lawfully may passe; and of that opinion is Littleton in our bookes.

5 Co. REP., 13, a. Between Peter Rosse and Aldwick in an Ejectione firmae, which began Pasch. 37 Eliz. Rot. 499, the case was such; a lease is made to A. and his assigns, habendum to him during his life, and the lives of B. and C.; and if this limitation during the life of B. and C. were void or not, was the question. And it was adjudged, that the limitation was good; for where it was objected that when a man hath two estates in him, the greater shall drown the less, and that an estate for his own life is higher than for the life of another; and therefore an estate for his own life, and for the lives of others, cannot stand together to that it was answered and resolved, that in the case at bar, the lessee had but one estate, which hath this limitation, scil. during his life, and the lives of two others, and he hath but one freehold, and therefore there cannot be any drowning of estates in the case, but he hath an estate of freehold to continue during these three lives, and the survivor of them. -Rosse's Case (1598).