From Blacks Law Dictionary The right of property is that sole and despotic dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world, in total exclusion of the right of any other individual in the universe. It consists in the free use, enjoyment, and disposal of all a persons acquisitions without any control or diminution save only by the laws of the land. PROPERTY. That which is peculiar or proper to any person; that which belongs exclusively to one; in the strict legal sense, an aggregate of rights which are guaranteed and protected by the government. PROPER PARTY. As distinguished from a necessary party, is one who has an interest in the subject-matter of the litigation, which may be conveniently settled therein; one without whom a substantial decree may be made, but not a decree which shall completely settle all the questions which may be involved in the controversy and conclude the rights of all the persons who have any interest in the subject of the litigation. More specifically, ownership; the unrestricted and exclusive right to a thing; the right to dispose of a thing in every legal way, to possess it, to use it, and to exclude everyone else from interfering with it. Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 265. That dominion or indefinite right of use or disposition which one may lawfully exercise over particular things or subjects. The highest right a man can have to anything; being used for that right which one has to lands or tenements, goods or chattels, which no way depends on another mans courtesy. Jackson ex dem.Pearson v. Housel, 17 Johns. 281, 283. Absolute property. In respect to chattels personal property is said to be absolute where a man has, solely and exclusively, the right and also the possession of movable chattels. 2 Bl.Comm. 389. In the law of wills, a bequest or devise to be the absolute property of the beneficiary may pass a title in fee simple. Fackler v. Berry, 93 Va. 565, 25 S.E. 887, 57 Am.St.Rep. 819. Or it may mean that the property is to be held free from any limitation or condition or free from any control or disposition on the part of others.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 12:30:41 +0000