SEVERALTY, title to an estate. An estate in severalty is one which is held by the tenant2 in his own right only, without any other being joined or connected with him in point of interest, during the continuance of his estate. 2 Bl. Com. 179. Cruise, Dig. 479, 480.
SEVERANCE3, pleading. When an action is brought in the name of several plain-tiffs, in which the plaintiffs must of necessity join, aud one or more of the persons so named do not appear, or make default after appearance, the other may have judgment4 of severance, or, as it is technically5 called, judgment ad sequendum solum.
2. But in personal actions, with the exception of those by executors, and of detinue for charters, there can be no summons and severance. Co. Lit. 139.
3. After severance, the party severed6 can never be mentioned in the suit, nor derive7 any advantage from it.
4. When there are several defendants8, each of them may use such plea as, he may think proper for his own defence; and they may join in the same plea, or sever1 at their discretion9; Co. Litt. 303, a except perhaps, in the case of di-latory pleas. Hob. 245, 250. But when the defendants have once united in the plea, they cannot afterwards sever at the rejoinder, or other later stage of the pleading. Vide, generally, Bro. Summ. and Sev.; 2 Rolle, 488; Archb. Civ. Pl. 59.
SEVERANCE, estates. The act by which any one of the unities10 of a joint11 tenancy is effected, is so called; because the estate is no longer a joint tenancy, but is severed.
2. A severance may be effected in various ways, namely: 1. By partition, which is either voluntary or compulsory12. 2. By alienation13 of one of the joint tenants14, which turns the estate into a tenancy in common. 3. By the purchase or descent of all the shares of the joint tenants, so that the whole estate becomes vested in one only. Com. Dig. Estates by Grant, K 5; 1 Binn. R. 175.
3. In another and a less technical sense, severance is the separation of a part of a thing from another; for example, the separation of malchinery from a mill, is a severance, and, in that case, the machinery15 which while annexed16 to the mill was real estate, becomes by the severance; personalty, unless such severance be merely temporary. 8 Wend. R. 587.
SEWER17. Properly a trench18 artificially made for the purpose of carrying water into the sea, river, or some other place of reception. Public sewers19 are, in general, made at the public expense. Crabb, R. P. §113.
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