Alienation

alienation n. the transfer of title to real property, voluntarily and completely. It does not apply to interests other than title, such as a mortgages. (See: alien)

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ALIENATION, estates. Alienation is an act whereby one man transfers the property and possession of lands, tenements, or other things, to another. It is commonly applied to lands or tenements, as to alien (that is, to convey) land in fee, in mortmain. Termes de la ley. See Co. Litt. 118 b; Cruise Dig. tit. 32, c. 1, Sec. 1-8.
     2. Alienations may be made by deed; by matter of record; and by devise.
     3. Alienations by deed may be made by original or primary conveyances, which are those by means of which the benefit or estate is created or first arises; by derivative or secondary conveyances, by which the benefit or estate originally created, is enlarged, restrained, transferred, or extinguished. These are conveyances by the common law. To these may be added some conveyances which derive their force and operation from the statute of uses. The original conveyances are the following: 1. Feoffment; 2. Gift; 3. Grant; 4. Lease; 6. Exchange; 6. Partition. The derivative are, 7. Release; 8. Confirmation; 9. Surrender; 10. Assignment; 11. Defeasance. Those deriving their force from the statute of uses, are, 12. Covenants to stand seised to uses; 13. Bargains and sales; 14. Lease and release; 15. Deeds to lend or declare the uses of other more direct conveyances; 16. Deeds of revocation of uses. 2 Bl. Com. ch. 20. Vide Conveyance; Deed. Alienations by matter of record may be, 1. By private acts of the legislature; 2. By grants, as by patents of lands; 3. By fines; 4. By common recovery. Alienations may also be made by devise (q.v.)

ALIENATION, med. jur. The term alienation or mental alienation is a generic expression to express the different kinds of aberrations of the human understanding. Dict. des Science Med. h.t.; 1 Beck's Med. Jur. 535.