Use in Europe

Definition of Use

The technical noun “use” is derived from the Latin opus (benefit). It is a word which, as Maitland says, has mistaken its c vn origin.
Before 1536, if A conveyed land by feoffment to B, with the intention, express or implied, that B should not hold it for his own benefit, but for the benefit of a third person C, or of A himself, then B was said to hold the land ” to the use,” that is, for the benefit, of C or A. At common law the feoffee to uses (B) was the owner of the land, the seisin or legal estate being in him. In the Court of Chancery, on the other hand, he was merely the nominal owner ; he was bound to allow the cestui que use (C) to have the profits and benefit of the land. The ” use ” or beneficial ownership was treated like an estate. It was devisable by will, although the land was not.
A conveyance to uses enabled interests in land to be created and transferred with a flexibility and secrecy unknown to the common law ; and it enabled the owners of land to evade inconvenient incidents of tenure.
The Statute of Uses was passed (27 Hen. 8, c. 10) in 1536 to abolish uses by providing that where a person was seised of an estate of freehold to the use of another the use should be converted into the legal estate, and that the ccstui que use should become the legal owner.
The Statute failed to destroy uses and equitable interests owing to the decision in Jane Tyrrel’s Case (q.v.) where it was held that if there was a use following on a use, the Statute executed the first use, and was then exhausted, so that the legal estate vested in the first cestui que use, who held on behalf of the second who still had an equitable estate. The second use came to be known as a trust. The Statute has been made ingenious use of by conveyancers. A use had only to be expressed to shift the legal estate without formality.
An executed use is one which takes effect immediately as where land is conveyed to A and his heirs to the use of B and his heirs. An executory use is one which is to take effect at some future time. A springing use is an executory use which is to come into existence at some future time, e.g., to A and his heirs to the use of B and his heirs on the death of C. A shifting use is an executory use which shifts from one person to another on the happening of some event, e.g., to A and his heirs to the use of B and his heirs, and on the death of C, to X and his heirs. The Statute of Uses is repealed as from January 1, 1926, by the Law of Property Act, 1925. See Trust

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Definition of Use is, temporally, from A Concise Law Dictionary (1927). This page needs to be proofread.

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