Legal Definitions - parcenary

The term parcenary refers to a historical form of co-ownership of land, which is also commonly known as coparcenary. It arises when multiple individuals inherit property together, typically under specific common law rules of inheritance, often when there is no single male heir to inherit under primogeniture.

In a parcenary, the co-owners, known as coparceners, hold the property as if they were a single heir. This means they each possess an equal, undivided share of the entire property. A key characteristic of parcenary is the absence of a "right of survivorship," which distinguishes it from other forms of co-ownership like joint tenancy. Instead, if one coparcener dies, their share passes to their own heirs, rather than automatically being absorbed by the remaining coparceners.

Any coparcener has the right to demand a physical division, or "partition," of the property, converting their undivided share into a specific, separate portion of the land.

• Example 1: Inheriting an Ancestral Farm

  After their father passed away without a will, three sisters, Maria, Sofia, and Elena, inherited their family's ancestral farm. Under the historical inheritance laws applicable in their region, which favored male heirs but allowed female heirs to inherit equally in the absence of males, they held the farm in parcenary. This meant that each sister owned an equal, undivided share of the entire farm, not a specific plot within it. If Maria were to pass away, her one-third share would be inherited by her children, not automatically by Sofia and Elena.

• Example 2: A Historical Estate Division

  In the 17th century, a wealthy English lord died without any surviving sons. His vast estate was therefore inherited by his five daughters. According to the laws of the time, these daughters became coparceners of the estate. They collectively owned the entire property, each with an equal, undivided interest. One of the daughters, Lady Eleanor, later decided she wanted her own separate portion of the land to manage independently, and she successfully petitioned the court for a partition of the estate.

• Example 3: Shared Family Cottage

  A small, historic cottage and its surrounding land had been passed down through a family for generations. When the last male owner died intestate, leaving no sons, his two daughters, Clara and Beatrice, inherited the property. Their ownership was a parcenary. They both had full rights to use and enjoy the entire cottage and land, and their shares were equal but undivided. If Clara were to sell her interest, she would be selling her undivided share of the whole property, not a specific room or section of the garden.