land

land

n. real property, real estate (and all that grows thereon), and the right to minerals underneath and the airspace over it. It may include improvements like buildings, but not necessarily. The owner of the land may give a long-term (like 99 years) lease to another with the right to build on it. The improvement is a "leasehold" for ownership of the right to use--without ownership of--the underlying land. The right to use the air above a parcel of land is subject to height limitations by local ordinance, state or federal law.

(See: real property, real estate)

Copyright © 1981-2005 by Gerald N. Hill and Kathleen T. Hill. All Right reserved.

land

not only the physical surface of land but everything growing on or underneath that surface, anything permanently affixed to the surface (such as a building) and the airspace above that surface. It includes not only the soil or earth but always any water, a pond, for example, being regarded as land covered by water. Land may be divisible both horizontally and vertically; thus, ownership of the surface may be vested in one person while ownership of mines and minerals are vested in another. It is perfectly possible to have ‘flying freeholds’, where ownership of different storeys of the same building are vested in different persons. Scotland has a developed law of the tenement which has been given an even more coherent statutory basis in the twenty-first century.

Collins Dictionary of Law © W.J. Stewart, 2006

LAND. This term comprehends any found, soil or earth whatsoever, as meadows, pastures, woods, waters, marshes, furze and heath. It has an indefinite extent upwards as well as downwards; therefore land, legally includes all houses and other buildings standing or built on it; and whatever is in a direct line between the surface and the centre of the earth, such as mines of metals and fossils. 1 Inst. 4 a; Wood's Inst. 120; 2 B1. Com. 18; 1 Cruise on Real Prop. 58. In a more confined sense, the word land is said to denote "frank tenement at the least." Shep. To. 92. In this sense, then, leaseholds cannot be said to be included under the word lands. 8 Madd. Rep. 635. The technical sense of the word land is farther explained by Sheppard, in his Touch. p. 88, thus: "if one be seised of some lands in fee, and possessed of other lands for years, all in one parish, and he grant all his lands in that parish (without naming them) in fee simple or for life; by this grant shall pass no, more but the lands he hath in fee simple." It is also said that land in its legal acceptation means arable land. 11 Co. 55 a. See also Cro. Car. 293; 2 P. Wms. 458, n.; 5 Ves. 476; 20 Vin. Ab. 203.
     2. Land, as above observed, includes in general all the buildings erected upon it; 9 Day, R. 374; but to this general rule there are some exceptions. It is true, that if a stranger voluntarily erect buildings on another's land, they will belong to the owner of the land, and will become a part of it; 16 Mass. R. 449; yet cases are, not wanting where it has been decided that such an erection, under peculiar circumstances, would be considered as personal property. 4 Mass. R. 514; 8 Pick. R. 283, 402; 5 Pick, R. 487; 6 N. H. Rep. 555; 2 Fairf. R. 371; 1 Dana, R. 591; 1 Burr. 144.

A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856.