A chose in possession is an item of tangible personal property that can be physical possessed by the owner and can be transferred by delivery. Possession of a chose in possession is prima-facie evidence of ownership.
Chose in possession is opposed to chose in action, and denotes not only the right to enjoy or possess a thing, but also the actual or constructive enjoyment of it. The possession may be absolute or qualified. It is absolute when the person is fully and completely the proprietor or owner of the thing; it is qualified when he "has not an exclusive right, or not a permanent right, but a right that may sometimes subsist and at other times not subsist," as in the case of animals ferae naturae (feral by nature). A chose in possession is freely transferable by delivery. Previous to the Married Women's Property Act of 1882, a wife's choses in possession became vested in her husband immediately upon her marriage, while her choses in action did not belong to her husband until he had converted them to possession. However, this difference is now practically obsolete.
Read more about this topic: Chose
Famous quotes containing the words chose and/or possession:
“Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd s bag, in the pouch; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.”
—Bible: Hebrew, 1 Samuel 17:40.
“We do not place especial value on the possession of a virtue until we notice its total absence in our opponent.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)