land ascertained. Upon payment of the amount so ascertained, the title vests in the government. This right to appropriate private property for the public use is called the right of eminent domain.

This right of eminent domain is exercised in another way when private individuals for their own profit embark in enterprises which perform some public service. It can only be exercised where the property is taken for a public use, and where the property condemned is necessary to enable the public use to be carried into effect. It is also a condition that compensation must be made to the owner, and it is generally held that payment must be made before entry. Cities and towns take property for streets and parks; railroad, turnpike, telegraph, telephone, canal, ferry, gas, water and irrigation companies, condemn land for right of way, and exercise this right when authorized to do so by the legislature, with whom rests the power to determine the manner in which, and purposes for which, it may be exercised.

The proceedings by which property may be taken and appropriated for the purposes named in the preceding section are regulated by statute, and in this matter there is substantial uniformity in the laws of the several states. The corporation desiring to exercise the right may file in the proper court an instrument of appropriation, setting forth the uses to which the property is to be devoted, giving an accurate description of the property intended to be appropriated, and setting out the names of the owners and persons interested in it. The proceedings may be summary, as in some states, where the law does not give the right of trial by jury, or they may be in the form of a civil action, in which the right to a trial by jury is given. Proceedings in the exercise of the right of eminent domain are not "suits at common law," for which "the

253 right of trial by jury shall be preserved," as required by the constitution. In either case the jury or commissioners selected hear evidence, view the premises and report to the court their finding as to the amount of damages to be paid to the landowners. When the report is confirmed by the court, the party seeking the appropriation may pay the money into court, and enter upon the property. If either party is dissatisfied with the report, an appeal may usually be taken from the award. As the proceedings are purely statutory, the provisions of the statute regulating them must be strictly followed. Judgments in such cases have the same binding effect as ordinary judgments, and they can not be collaterally impeached.

§ 414. Title by escheat.-Where a person died intestate in England without lawful heirs the title to his real property went back to the original grantor, or lord of the fee, from whom it proceeded. In this country when a man dies intestate and without heirs, the title to his real property reverts or escheats to the people, as forming a part of the common stock of the community, it being a fundamental principle that, if the ownership of property becomes vacant, the right must necessarily subside into the whole community in whom it was vested at the origin of society. This rule, which formerly applied to real property only, is extended by the laws of most of the states to personal property.

§ 415. Title by forfeiture.-Title by forfeiture is a title which the state acquires to the property of a felon who, with his heirs, devisees and legatees, are deprived of it on account of, and as a punishment for, high crimes. Such forfeitures are by the constitutions of many

states prohibited. Conditional estates in chattels and real property may be forfeited by breach of conditions, and the misuse of a chattel by a person having a qualified interest therein will sometimes determine his estate in favor of the absolute owner.

§ 416. Definition.-Personal property embraces all objects and rights which are capable of ownership, except real estate or some interest therein.

§ 417. Title to-How acquired.-The title to personal property may be acquired in various ways. (1) By occupancy, as where one finds or takes possession of an article which has no owner or which has been abandoned, or where one captures wild animals, or fish, or finds a jewel to which no one claims title. (2) By increase or accession, as where one owns animals who have young. (3) By confusion, as where one has goods or property, like wheat, and some one wrongfully mixes his property of the same kind with it, so that it can not be distinguished and separated. (4) By gift, as where the owner of an article delivers it to one with the intent to pass the title to the donee. (5) By a written transfer describing the property and the person to whom it is transferred. (6) By sale of the owner, with or without delivery of possession. (7) By succession or descent from one who dies intestate. (8) By bequest contained in a will. (9) By operation of law or judgment, as where one is sued for the conversion of another's property and judgment is rendered against the defendant for its value; in such cases, upon payment or satisfaction of the judgment so

rendered the title to the property vests in the defendant. So the title to the personal property of one dying testate or intestate vests in the executor or administrator by mere force of law. So a qualified title to the personal property of a ward vests in the guardian, and the assignee of a bankrupt and a receiver appointed by the court have a title to the goods which come to their possession in the administration of these trusts. (10) Title to personal property may be acquired also by purchase at a sale by an executor, administrator, guardian, assignee in bankruptcy, trustee, sheriff or other officer who, by law or the decree of a court, has authority to make such sale.

§ 418. Burial rights.-At common law there could be no ownership of the bodies of the dead, but in some states the law has been modified and some of the rules of property have been applied. In such states the bodies belong to the surviving relatives in the order of inheritance, and they have the right to control the disposition thereof. There would be a right of action against one who robs the grave or desecrates the body. The real injury in such case would not be to the grave or body, but to the feelings of the survivors, and the law recognizes such injury as a legitimate basis for recovery of damages.