Odger's English Common Law

20
PRIVATE EIGHTS.
lie is out of possession rightfully and by his own act—e.g., if
lie has let the land to a tenant, or lent the thing to a friend.
Or he may be wrongfully out of possession, e.g., if he has-
been ousted from the land by a trespasser, or if the thing has
been stolen. In either case he remains the owner : the hirer
or borrower is only entitled to hold it for the period agreed
on :
the trespasser or thief has no rights at all.
But he will not remain the owner if he stays out of posses-
sion too long. In order that titles may be clear and that
lawsuits may end, most States decree that long-continued
possession, even though wrongful in its inception, shall eventually
confer ownership on the person in possession. The
delay of the true owner who does not assert his rights will
after a certain length of time vest a title in the possessor.
This is called prescription.
Ownership of land in England, then, can be acquired in
three ways :
—
(i.) By transfer by or from the living owner.
(ii.) By succession on the death of the former owner.
(iii.) By prescription.
Ownership of things can be acquired in these three ways
and in two more :
—
(iv.) By manufacture or construction. As a rule, the man
who made a thing is its owner, unless he made it out of
materials which belonged to some one else, or made it under a
contract that it should belong to some one else when made.
(v.) By seizure (or " occupation," as it is technically
called). If one man flings a thing away with the intention
of abandoning all property in it, any one else may pounce on
it and make it his own. Anything so abandoned is said to be
" derelict." A ship is sometimes so badly injured in a storm
that it is abandoned by its crew. The captain of the next
vessel that comes by may take possession of that ship, if he
thinks fit, and tow it into port ; and its former owners cannot
reassert their property in it.
The property in a chattel can only be transferred by the
owner or by some one claiming through or under him. If some