TITLE

IS RIGHT = TITLE?

• YES: Holland, Lord Blackburn• NO: Salmond, Austin

•5th element of a Right.•Fact or event by reason of which the right is vested in the owner

•merely an element of the right.•Difference:Title indicates the idea of investitive fact Right is power, faculty or capacity founded on the title.

LEGAL RIGHTS

• Title is the de facto antecedent, legal right is its de jure consequent.

• Title:

(a) Lawful mode of acquisition

(b) Jural claim to have and hold

Justice Holmes

• Every right is a consequence attached by the law to one or more facts which the law defines.

• Wherever law gives anyone special right on the ground of certain special facts true to him.

• Special facts = title.

Salmond

• Title is the de facto antecedent of which the right is the de jure consequent.

• Right upon one man due to certain facts true to him (title).

• Right may be by birth or personal efforts, but title is essential.

Holland

• Fact giving rise to right is title.• Fact of transfer or extinguishment of right?

Bentham

• “dispositive facts” instead of “title”.

CLASSIFICATION OF TITLES

• Salmond• Bentham• Question of human will

Salmond’s Classification

Vestitive facts

Investitive facts

Derivative Title

Original Title

Alienative Facts

Salmond’s Classification

Vestitive facts

Investitive Facts

Derivative Title

Original Title

Alienative Facts

Extinctive Facts

Relation to Right(creation, transfer, extinction)

Salmond’s Classification

Vestitive facts

Investitive Facts

Derivative Title

Original Title

Alienative Facts

Extinctive Facts

Create rights

Divestitive FactsDestroy rights

Salmond’s Classification

Vestitive facts

Investitive facts

Derivative Title

Original Title

Alienative Facts

De novo(No previous existence)

Created by transfer of an existing right

Identification

Case:• ‘A’ caught fish from the river.

• He sold the fish to B.

Bentham’s Classification

Dispositive facts

Investitive facts

Collative facts

Impositive facts

Divestitive facts

Destructive facts

Exonerative facts

Translative facts

Bentham’s Classification

Dispositive facts

Investitive facts

Collative facts

Impositive facts

Divestitive facts

Destructive facts

Exonerative facts

Translative facts

Transferring of rights and duties

Bentham’s Classification

Dispositive facts

Investitive facts

Collative facts

Impositive facts

Divestitive facts

Destructive facts

Exonerative facts

Translative facts

Confer rightsImpose duties

Bentham’s Classification

Dispositive facts

Investitive facts

Collative facts

Impositive facts

Divestitive facts

Destructive facts

Exonerative facts

Translative facts

End rights Release persons from duties

Human Will Classification

Vestitive facts

Acts of the Law

Acts in the Law

Unilateral

Subject to dissent

Independent of dissent

Bilateral

Contracts

Creative Extinctive

Releases Assignments Grants

Creative Extinctive

Human Will Classification

Vestitive facts

Acts of the Law

Acts in the Law

Unilateral Bilateral

•Will of only one party is effective or operative•Valid even without consent of other party

•Consenting will of two or more parties

Identification

Case• ‘A’ entrusts property to ‘B’ in trust for ‘C’

Unilateral or Bilateral?

Importance of Agreements

1. Evidence of justice

2. Private declaration of rights and duties

Mutual consent Enforced by courts

Kinds of Agreements

1. Create Rights – Contracts & Grants

2. Transfer Rights - Assignments

3. Extinguish Rights - Releases

Agreement

Valid Invalid

Void Voidable

•Not recognized at all by law.•Will of the parties do not matter

•By reason of defect, liable to lose its effect at the option of one party•Not null from the beginning, but nullification has retrospective effect•Coercion, fraud or misrepresentation.•Midway between Void and Valid agreement

Validity of Agreements

1. Capacity of Parties

2. Legal Formalities

3. Morality and Public Policy

4. Error or Mistake

5. Consent

6. Consideration

1. Capacity of Parties

• Certain persons are not competent to enter into Contracts

• Contracts by them are Invalid• Eg. Minors, Lunatics

2. Legal Formalities

• Imposed by law to

(a) prove consent of parties

(b) distinguish actual agreement from negotiations leading to it

• Eg. Non registration, omission of signatures of parties

3. Morality and Public Policy

• Declared Invalid by Law• Eg. Wagering contracts, agreements in

restraint of trade

4. Error or Mistake

• Mistake :(a) Essential – no consensus ad idem

(b) Inessential – external circumstance, induced consent

5. Consent

• Invalid if obtained by means of compulsion, undue influence or coercion

6. Consideration

• Law requires valuable consideration, even if inadequate.

• Sec 25 (ICA) : Agreement without consideration is Void.

• Exceptions exist.

Modes of Acquiring Possession

(1)Animus- Rightful or wrongful

(2)Delivery – Actual or Constructive

Modes of Acquiring Ownership

(1)Principle of Occupatio

(2)Prescription

1. Principle of Occupatio

• Thing concerned did not belong to anybody – res nullius.

• Taking possession is sufficient.

2. Prescription

“Long possession”• Positive – lapse of time confers title• Negative –

Limitation of action –right existsPerfect Negative Prescription - Lapse of time

may extinguish right itself

Case : Adverse possession for 20+ years.

Is it fair?• Public Policy – certainty• Negative prescription is limited to fixed

period – repairs “injuries caused by time”• Theory of Laches – assertion of claim with

promptitude.

THE END