the return of the citation the surrogate will hear the allegations and proofs of the parties and make such a decree as justice requires.

9. Accounting and Settlement.-Upon the proceeding for the final judicial settlement of the accounts of the executor, or upon a proceeding for an intermediate settlement, all persons having any interest in the estate at that time, will be served with a citation or notice of the time and place when and where the account will be passed upon and settled by the surrogate, and any person so cited may at that time attend, examine the account and the vouchers, and may also question and examine the executor regarding his conduct of the office, and as to receipts and disbursements in the course of his or her administration of the estate, and may file objections to the account or to any of the items therein.

Where objections are filed the surrogate must try the issue raised by such objections, or a trial may be had before a jury if a demand for such trial is made at the time objections are filed. If any claims presented by creditors or persons claiming to be creditors of the deceased, have been rejected, the validity of such claims may be tried on such accounting before the surrogate alone, or before the surrogate and a jury if either the executor or the creditor demands a trial by jury at the time the claim is formally rejected.

There are so many questions of practice and questions regarding the responsibilities and duties of the executors, and the rights of legatees and beneficiaries, creditors and others that arise in the course of the administration of an estate, that it is impossible, within the scope of this work, to treat of every such question, and a person interested in an estate either as legatee, devisee, executor or otherwise, must consult as to such matters which may arise, either the surrogate or some competent lawyer.

CHAPTER X

REAL PROPERTY LAW

1. Defined

2. Enumeration and description of estates

3. Estates in possession and expectancy

4. Owners of estates, number and connection

5. Who may own real property

6. Who may convey

7, Dower in

8. Curtesy

9. Conveyances and mortgages

10. Recording instruments

11. Taxes on

12. Judgment liens

1. Defined.-Real property includes real estate, lands, tenements and hereditaments, corporeal and incorporeal. See chapter V, Part I, for further definition of the terms above and hereinafter used.

2. Enumeration of Estates.-In this State estates in real property are known as estates of inheritance; estates for life; estates for years; estates at will, and estates by sufferance.

Estates of inheritance are termed fee simple and when not defeasible or conditional is an absolute fee, being the greatest fee that can be granted or held in real estate. Estates of inheritance and for life are termed estates of freehold; estates for life are termed chattels real, and estates at will or by sufferance are termed chattel interests.

The interest of a tenant in realty under a lease from year to year or for any number of years is deemed a chattel real and passes to his or her executors, who are liable for the rent in their repre

sentative capacity so long as they occupy the premises.

3. In Posssesion, etc.-As respects the time of their enjoyment, estates are known as estates in possession, and estates in expectancy. The former is such an estate as entitles the owner to immediate possession of the property, and the latter is one in which the right of possession is postponed to a future time. The latter is again divided into future estates and reversions. A future estate is one limited to commence in possession at a future day, either with or without the intervention of a precedent estate, or on the determination, by lapse of time or otherwise, of a precedent estate created at the same time. A future estate dependent on a precedent estate is often termed a remainder and may be created and transferred by that name.

A reversion is the residue of an estate left in the grantor or in his or her heirs, or in the heirs of a testator, commencing in possession on the determination of one or more particular estates granted or devised.

A future estate may be vested or contingent. Vested when there is a person in being who would have an immediate right to the possession of the property on the determination of all the intermediate or precedent estates. Contingent so long as the persons to whom, or the event on which it is limited to take effect, remains uncertain. A contingent remainder cannot be created for a term of years, unless the nature of the contingency on which it is limited be such that the remainder must vest in interest during the continuance of not more than two lives in being at the creation of such remainder, or on the termination thereof. If a reremainder is created on any life estate, and more than two persons are named as the persons during whose lives the life estate shall continue, the remainder shall take effect on the death of the two first named persons as if no other lives had been mentioned.

Where an expectant estate is created by grant or by devise, the delivery of the grant or the death of the testator is considered the time of the creation of such estate. An expectant estate descends, and can be conveyed or devised in the same manner as an estate in possession. An expectant estate cannot be defeated or barred by any transfer or other act on the part of the owner of an intermediate or precedent estate, nor by any destruction of such precedent estate by ouster of the owner thereof; forfeiture; surrender; merger or otherwise; but such an estate can be defeated in any manner, or by any act or means which the person creating the estate did, in the creation thereof, provide for or authorize.

4. Owners of.-Estates, in respect to the number and connection of their owners, are divided into estates in severalty, in joint tenancy and in com

mon.

Every estate granted, conveyed or devised to two or more persons in their own right creates a tenancy in common, unless expressly declared to be in joint tenancy. Every estate vested in executors or trustees as such, shall be held by them in joint tenancy. A conveyance, grant or devise, to a man and his wife contained in one and the same instrument creates a tenancy by the entirety.

In the case of a tenancy in common each owner has an undivided interest in the whole, such interest descending on his or her death, intestate, to his or her heirs at law, and may be aliened or devised by such owner in his or her lifetime.

In the case of a joint tenancy the survivor succeeds to the whole estate. In the case of a tenancy by the entirety the survivor succeeds to the whole title, and during the life of the parties neither can convey to any person except the co-tenant without the consent of such co-tenant, nor can such estate be devised to any other person.

5. Who may own.-Any citizen of the United States, male or female, adult or minor. Also any

citizen of a State or nation which, by its laws, confers similar privileges on citizens of the United States.

A resident alien who has declared his intention of becoming a citizen, and who is, and intends to remain, a resident thereof, may for a term of six years after filing a written deposition of such facts in the office of the secretary of State, take, hold, convey and devise such property. He cannot take property by devise unless he has filed such deposition. The title of an alien, however, will be good in the absence of such deposition as against all persons except the State, and as against the State may hold until the State declares it escheated.

A woman born a citizen of the United States who marries an alien, and her children and descendants, though born abroad and though she and they reside in a foreign country may take, hold, convey and devise land, provided the title to such property came from or through a citizen of the United States.

The heirs of an Indian to whom real property was granted for military services rendered during the war of the Revolution, may take and hold same by descent.

Corporations may take and hold real property, but not beyond that necessary for their corporate purposes.

6. Who may convey.-Any person other than a minor, idiot, or one of unsound mind.

A deed of land executed by an infant is not void, but voidable, that is, he or she may disaffirm the deed upon arriving at age. Upon disaffirmance he or she cannot be compelled to restore the consideration for the conveyance. It is unsafe, it will be apparent, to take a deed of property from a minor. In order to obtain a good title of lands owned by a minor a proceeding in a court of competent jurisdiction to authorize a conveyance is necessary. This is a statutory proceeding and must be carefully conducted in all of its details to secure a perfect title.