Talk:Mortmain

The introduction is completely and utterly opaque to me. The referenced quotations are useful, but really interrupt the flow of the text. I have trouble even telling if this sentence is grammatically correct:

Mortmain (from Old French, morte meyn), means miterally dead-hand, or "such a state of possession of land as makes it inalienable" (Wharton, "Law Lexicon", 10th ed., London, 1902, s. v.), is "the possession of land or tenements by any corporation" (Bouvier, "Law Dictionary", Boston, 1897, s. v.), or "where the use came ad manum mortuam, which was when it came to some corporation" (Lord Bacon, "Reading on the Statute of Uses"), alienation of lands or tenements to a corporation being termed alienation in mortmain (Stephen, "New Commentaries on the Laws of England", 15th ed., London, 1908, I, 296).

--Saforrest 01:00, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

It's an aweful E-B text dump. It might be best in the end to just wipe it out and start with a stub of some sort. 68.39.174.238 02:39, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Cleanup request

(moved from article cleanup tag 17:33, 26 June 2006 (UTC))

CE phrasing is outdated: "Modern law of England" turns out to be about 1900 CE., rife with possibly useless citations

• I'm voting for a complete delete and restart. I'll do it (if there is general agreement) unless someone else wants to do it. Legal history is not my strongest suite, so I might have to a short article and leave it as a stub. Legis 10:08, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

• Per talk page above, I have replaced the previous text dump with a much shorter stub. I am not expert, but I think I have covered off the salient points about Mortmain. I have taken off the tags. If anyone can add or embellish appropriately, please do. Legis 19:16, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

• As an example of defects in this entry that still need attention, note that the opening sentence defines mortmain in terms inconsistent with the definition offered in the closing section on Origins. The opening sentence says " a legal term that means ownership of real estate by a corporation or legal institution that can be transferred or sold in perpetuity" whereas the Origins sections states " Mortmain means thus incapacity of selling possessions or estates.". Karolus (talk) 15:04, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

Revised

The opening two lines, though revised in 18 months time, are still opaque:

Mortmain is a legal term, derived from medieval French, literally meaning dead hand. Mortmain refers to the sterilisation of ownership of property by vesting it perpetually in a corporation (historically, this would usually be a corporation sole in the form of a religious office; today, insofar as mortmain prohibitions still exist, it refers more often to modern companies and charitable trusts).

I have rewritten this based on the definition of Wharton (1902) and Bouvier (1897) above using a simpler and clearer definition of the term "inalienable," combined with this definition from the AMHER (2004): "Law: Perpetual ownership of real estate by institutions such as churches that cannot transfer or sell it."

Mortmain is a legal term that means ownership of real estate by a corporation or legal institution that cannot be transferred or sold in perpetuity. Historically, the land owner usually would be the religious office of a church; today, insofar as mortmain prohibitions against perpetual ownership still exist, it refers most often to modern companies and charitable trusts. The term "mortmain" is derived from medieval French (mort main), literally meaning "dead hand."

I think this is an improvement but if you want to change it again, feel free to do so. Charvex (talk) 09:50, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Does this principal apply to real estate that is part of Native American territory on reservations?----

Mainmorte falsely links here

See the French language link. Mainmorte was the right of a lord to inherit the property of a dead serf. I can't fix because I don't have a good source. Benjamin Trovato (talk) 02:10, 10 September 2022 (UTC)