Also known as: seise · seises · seised · seising · seisins · seisina · seisor · seisors · seizin · seysin
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Possession of a freehold estate in land under a claim of ownership. The concept requires both actual possession and a freehold interest such as a fee simple or life estate, distinguishing it from mere possession under a leasehold.
Imperial Homes LLC conveyed an apartment complex to Horizon Estates Corporation by general warranty deed. Years later a tenant proved that part of the land lay outside the grantor's chain of title. Horizon Estates sued for breach of the covenant of seisin contained in the deed. The court held that the covenant was breached at delivery because the grantor lacked seisin of the disputed portion.
Sylvia Santos and her husband held Blackacre as joint tenants. Sylvia executed a deed conveying her interest to herself alone in an effort to sever the tenancy. The deed failed because common-law seisin could not pass from a grantor to herself without a third-party intermediary. The joint tenancy therefore remained intact.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Sebastian Santos pursued a wild fox across open land with hounds. Pierson captured and killed the fox before Santos could seize it. The court held that Santos never acquired seisin because he lacked bodily possession or a reasonable prospect of immediate capture. Pierson therefore obtained rightful possession.
The United States flew military aircraft at low altitudes over Causby's chicken farm, destroying the use of the surface. The Court ruled that the overflights constituted a taking because they destroyed the owner's beneficial ownership and seisin of the land. The absence of physical touching was irrelevant to the destruction of seisin.
Sarah Whiton received land under a devise that limited her estate to a qualified fee. She later attempted to convey a fee simple absolute. The court held that she could convey only the estate of which she was seised, so the grantee took subject to the same qualification.
The Georgia legislature granted land to private buyers who later conveyed it to Fletcher. A subsequent legislature repealed the grant and conveyed the same land to Peck. The Supreme Court held that the original grantees had acquired seisin under the first grant and that the repeal could not divest that vested title.
The covenant of seisin warrants that the grantor holds both good title and actual seisin at the moment of conveyance. It is breached immediately if the grantor lacks seisin, regardless of later events or record notice.
Yes. The covenant of seisin runs with the land and may be enforced by a subsequent grantee against the original grantor when a title defect is later discovered.
Seisin requires possession under a claim of freehold ownership such as a fee simple or life estate. A tenant for years has possession but lacks seisin, which remains in the reversioner.
No. Seisin requires beneficial ownership of a freehold estate. A trustee holding legal title for another lacks the beneficial seisin needed for doctrines such as dower.
…present, through waste and unoccupied lands, which must inevitably and speedily have terminated in corporal possession or bodily seisin, confers such a right to the object of it as to make any one a wrongdoer who shall interfere and shoulder the spoil. The justice's judgment ought, therefore, in my opinion, to be affirmed.