Legal Definition and Related Resources of Use

To put into practice; employ habitually as in to use diligence. To occupy and enjoy the fruits of, as in using lands and tenements. To employ for the accomplishment of a purpose. To utilise for a particular purpose as in using a certain name in one’s business. The term also means benefit as where a testator devises property to someone for his own absolute use. At common law before the English Statute of Uses, 1535, a use was also an equitable right of ownership of property, the possession of which was in another. At common law, the actual possessor was treated as the owner thereof, but the court of equity was willing to come in aid of the beneficial owner. The person in whom the legal estate was vested was the feoffee to uses, and the person who held the beneficial interest was the cestui que use. Since the cestui que use was not invested with the legal estate, his widow was not entitled to dower. The feoffee to uses could alienate the land and his widow was entitled to dower. There were further limitations on the cestui que trust’s interest in the land. By the Statute of Uses, an attempt was made to amalgamate the legal and equitable interest but failed for many reasons to completely achieve that object. By the law of Property Act, 1925, in England, the Statute of Uses of 1535 was repealed and it imposed the relationship of a trustee and cestui que trust on what would have been otherwise the relationship of a feoffee to uses and the cestui que use.

Use Is not the thing itself or any part thereof, but is that which the thing will produce, 163 Mich. 353; that which the user is to enjoy, hold, occupy, and have the fruit thereof. 163 Mich. 556, 562. In Lands. A confidence reposed in another, who was made tenant of the land, or terre tenant, that he would dispose of the land according to the intention of the cestui que use, or him to whose use it was granted, and suffer him to take the profits. Plowd. 352; Gilb. Uses, 1; Bac. Law Tr. 150, 306; Cornish, Uses, 13; 1 Fonbl. Eq. 363; 2 Fonbl. Eq. 7; Saunders, Uses, 2; Co. Litt. 272b; 1 Coke, 121; 2 Bl. Comm. 328 ; 2 Bouv. Inst, note 1885 et seq. A right in one person, called the cestui que use, to take the profits of land which another has the legal title and possession, together with the duty of defending the same, and of making estates thereof according to the direction of the cestui que itse. Uses were derived from the fidei commissa of the Roman law. It was the duty of a Roman magistrate, the praetor fidei commissarius, whom Bacon terms the particular chancellor for uses, to enforce the observance of this confidence. Inst. 2. 23. 2. They were introduced into England by the ecclesiastics in the reign of Edward III., before 1377, for the purpose of avoiding the statutes of mortmain, and the clerical chancellors of those times held them to the fidei commissa, and binding in conscience. To obviate many inconveniences and difficulties which had arisen out of the doctrine and introduction of uses, the statute of 27 Henry VIII. c. 10, commonly called the “Statute of Uses,” or, in conveyances and pleadings, the statute for transferring uses into possession, was passed. It enacts that, “when any person shall be seised of lands, etc., to the use, confidence, or trust of any other person or body politic, the person or corporation entitled to the use in fee simple, fee tail, for life, or years, or otherwise; shall from thenceforth stand and be seised or possessed of the land, etc., of and in the like estate as they have in the use, trust, or confidence, and that the estates of the persons so seised to the uses shall be deemed to be in him or them that have the use, in such quality, manner, form, and condition as they had before in the use.” The statute thus executes the use, that is, it conveys the possession to the use, and transfers the use to the possession, and, in this manner, making the cestui que use complete owner of the lands and tenements, as well at law as in equity. 2 Bl. Comm. 383; 1 Saund. 254, note 6. A modern use has, therefore, been defined to be an estate of right which is acquired through the operation of the statute of 27 Henry VIII. c. 10 ; and which, when it may take effect according to the rules of the common law, is called the “legal estate,” and, when it may not, is denominated a “use,” with a term descriptive of its modification. Cornish, Uses, 35. The common-law judges decided, in the construction of this statute, that a use could notnbe raised upon a use (Dyer, 155 [A] ) , and that, on a feoffment to A. and his heirs to the use of B. and his heirs in trust for C. and his heirs, the statute executed only the first use, and that the second was a mere nullity. The judges also held that, as the statute mentioned only such persons as were seised to the use of others, it did not extend to a term of years, or other chattel interests, of which a termor is not seised, but only possessed. Bac. Law Tr. 335; Poph. 76; Dyer, 369; 2 Bl. Comm. 336. The rigid literal construction of the statute by the courts of law again opened the doors of the chancery courts. 1 Madd. Chanc. Prac. 448, 450. Uses and trusts are often spoken of together by the older and some modern writers; the distinction being those trusts Which were of a permanent nature, and required no active duty of the trustee, being called “uses;” those in which the trustee had an active duty to perform, as, the payment of debts, raising portions, and the like, being called “special” or “active” trusts, or simply “trusts.” 1 Spence, Eq. Jur. 448. For the creation of a use, a consideration either valuable, as money, or good, as relationship in certain degrees, was necessary. Crompt. 49b; 3 Swanst. 591; 7 Coke, 40; Plowd. 298; 17 Mass. 257; 4 N. H. 229, 397; 14 Johns. (N. Y.) 210. See “Resulting Use.” The property must have been in esse, and such that seisin could be given. Crabb, Real Prop. §§ 1610-1612; Cro. Eliz. 401. Uses were alienable, although in many respects resembling choses in action, which were not assignable at common law. Cornish, Uses, 19; 2 Bl. Comm. 331. When once raised, it might be granted or devised in fee, in tail, for life, or for years. 1 Spence, Eq. Jur. 455. The effect of the statute of uses was much restricted by the construction adopted by the courts. It practically resulted, it has been said, in the addition of these words, “to the use,” to every conveyance, Williams, Real Prop. 133. The intention of the statute was to destroy the estate of the feoffee to use, and to transfer it by the very act which created it to the cestui que use, as if the seisin or estate of the feoffee, together with the use, had, uno fiatu, passed from the feoffer to the cestui que use. A very full and clear account of the history and present condition of the law of uses is given by Professor Washburn (2 Real Prop. 91-156), which is of particular I valne to the American student. Consult, also, Spence, Eq. Jur.; Cornish, Uses; Bac. Law Tracts; Greenl. Cruise, Dig. Classification :
(1) A springing use is one limited to arise on a future event, where no preceding estate is limited, and which does not take effect in derogation of any other interest than that of the grantor.
(2) A shifting use is one which takes effect in derogation of some other estate, and is either limited by the deed by which it is created, or authorized to be created by some one named in the deed.
(3) A contingent tise is one limited to take effect as a remainder.
(4) Resulting use. Where the use returns to the person who raised it because of impossibility of execution or by expiration, it is sometimes called a “resulting use.” 2 Bl. Comm. 335. In Civil Law. A right of receiving so so much of the natural profits of a thing as is necessary to daily sustenance. It differs from “usufruct,” which is a right not only to use, but to enjoy. 1 Browne, Civ. Law, 184; Lee. Elm. §§ 414, 416.

noun

• adhibition
• adoption
• application
• avail
• benefit
• convenience
• disposal
• disposition
• employment
• enjoyment
• exercitation
• exploitation
• function
• means
• practice
• purpose
• service
• serviceability
• suitability
• usage
• usefulness
• usus
• utilitas
• utility
• utilization Associated Concepts: actual use
• apparent use
• beneficial use
• best and highest use
• business use
• charitable use
• common use
• contingent use
• convenient use
• corporate use
• customary use
• declared use
• domestic use
• dominent use
• exclusive use
• existing use
• forseeable use
• hostile use
• lawful use
• mutual use
• nonconforming use
• nonpublic use
• normal use
• offensive use
• official use
• ordinary use
• permissive use
• personal use
• primary use
• principal use
• private use
• reasonable use
• resulting use
• secondary use
• shifting use
• Statute of Uses
• suitable use
• unfit for use
• use and derívate use

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Use in Historical Law

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This definition of Use is based on the The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary . This entry needs to be proofread.

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Use in Law Enforcement

Main Entry: Law Enforcement in the Legal Dictionary. This section provides, in the context of Law Enforcement, a partial definition of use.

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See Also

• Law Enforcement Officer
• Police
• Law Enforcement Agency

Further Reading

• use in A Dictionary of Law Enforcement (Oxford University Press)
• use in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement
• A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis