Legal Term: SPECIAL OCCUPANT,

Definition: estates. When an estate is granted to a man and his heirs during the life, of cestui que vie, and the grantee die without alienation, and while the life for which he held continues, the heir will succeed, and is called a special occupant. 2 Bl. Com. 259. In the United States the statute provisions of the different states vary considerably upon this subject. In New York and New Jersey, special occupancy is abolished. Virginia, and probably Maryland, follow the English statutes; in Massachusetts and other states, where the real and personal estates of intestates are distributed in the same way and manner, the question does not seem to be material. 4 Kent, Com. 27.

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