Extracted From:
  A LAW DICTIONARY ..., SIXTH EDITION, 1856
  by John Bouvier
  CHILDS & PETERSON, PHILADELPHIA

PARTITION, conveyancing. A deed of partition is, one by which lands held in
joint tenancy, coparcenary, or in common, are divided into distinct portions,
and allotted to the several parties, who take them in severalty. 
   In the old deeds of partition, it was merely agreed that one should enjoy a
particular part, and the other, another part, in severalty; but it is now the
practice for the parties mutually to convey and assure to each other the
different estates which they are to take in severalty, under the partition....

PARTITION, estates. The division which is made between several persons, of
lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or of goods and chattels which belong to
them as co-heirs or co-proprietors. The term is more technically applied to the
division of real estate made between coparceners, tenants in common or joint
tenants. 

   The act of partition ascertains and fixes what each of the co-proprietors is
entitled to have in severalty 

   Partition is either voluntary, or involuntary, by compulsion. Voluntary
partition is made by the owners of the estate, and by a conveyance or release of
that part to each other which is to be held by him in severalty. 

   Compulsory partition is made by virtue of special laws providing that remedy.
"It is presumed," says Chancellor Kent, 4 Com. 360, "that the English statutes
of 31 and 32 Henry VIII have been generally reenacted and adopted in this
country, and probably, with increased facilities for partition." In some states
the courts of law have jurisdiction; the courts of equity have for a long time
exercised jurisdiction in awarding partition.... In Massachusetts, the statute
authorizes a partition to be effected by petition without writ.... In
Pennsylvania, intestates' estates, may be divided upon petition to the orphans'
court. By the civil code of Louisiana, ... partition of a succession may be
made....

   Courts of equity exercise jurisdiction in cases of partition on various
grounds, in cases of such complication of titles, when no adequate remedy can be
had at law; ... but even in such cases the remedy in equity is more complete,
for equity directs conveyances to be made, by which the title is more secure. 

"Partition at law, and in equity," says Lord Redesdale, "are very different
things. The first operates by the judgment of a court of law, and delivering up
possession in pursuance of it, which concludes all the parties to it. Partition
in equity proceeds upon conveyances to be executed by the parties; and if the
parties be not competent to execute the conveyance, the partition cannot be
effectually had." ....

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