JOINT¹ TRUSTEES. Two or more persons who are entrusted² with property for the benefit of one or more others.

2. Unlike joint executors, joint trustees cannot act separately, but must join both in conveyances³ and receipts, for one cannot sell without the others, or receive more of the consideration money, or be more a trustee than his partner. The trust having been given to the whole, it requires their joint act to do anything under it. They are not responsible for money received by their co-trustees, if the receipt be given for the mere⁴ purposes of form. But if receipts be given under circumstances purporting⁵ that, the money, though not received by both, was under the control of both, such a receipt shall charge, and the consent that the other shall misapply the money, particularly where he has it in his power to secure it, renders him responsible. 11 Serg. & Rawle, 71. See 1 Sch. & Lef. 341; 5 Johns. Ch. R. 283; Fonbl. Eq. B. 2, c. 7, s. 5; Bac. Abr. Uses and Trusts, K; 2 Bro. Ch. R. 116; 3 Bro. Ch. R. 112. In the case of the Attorney General v. Randall, a different doctrine⁶ was held. Id. pl. 9.

JOINTRESS or JOINTURESS. A woman who has an estate settled on her by her hushand, to hold during her life, if she survive him. Co. Litt. 46.

JOINTURE, estates.. A competent livelihood⁷ of freehold for the wife, of lands and tenements⁸; to take effect in profit or possession, presently after the death of the hushand, for the life of the wife at least.

2. Jointures are regulated by the statute⁹ of 27 Hen. VIII. o. 10, commonly called the statute of uses.

3. To make a good jointure, the following circumstances must concur¹⁰, namely; 1. It must take effect, in possession or profit, immediately from the death of the hushand. 2. It must be for the wife's life, or for some greater estate. 3. It must be limited to the wife herself, and not to any other person in trust for her. 4. It must be made in satisfaction for the wife's whole dower, and not of part of it only. 5. The estate limited to the wife must be expressed or averred¹¹ to be, in satisfaction of her whole dower. 6. It must be made before marriage. A jointure attended with all these circumstances is binding¹² on the widow, and is a complete bar to the claim of dower; or rather it prevents its ever arising. But there are other. modes of limiting an estate to a wife, which, Lord Coke says, are good jointures within the statute, provided the wife accepts of them after the death of the hushand. She may, however, reject them, and claim her dower. Cruise, Dig. tit. 7; 2 Bl. Com. 137; Perk¹³. h. t. In its more enlarged sense, a jointure signifies a joint estate, limited to both hushand and. wife. 2 131. Com. 137. Vide 14 Vin. Ab. 540; Bac. Ab. h. t.; 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 1761, et seq.