Joint_1

Joint tenancy. When lands are granted to two or more persons to hold to them and their heirs, or for the term of their lives, or for the term of another's life, without any restrictive, exclusive or explanatory words, all the persons named in such grant, to whom the lands are so given, take a joint estate, and are thence called joint tenants. On the death of either, without partition, the estate descends to the survivors, but the jointure may be destroyed by alienation of one joint tenant, whereby the joint tenancy is severed and a "tenancy in common" ensues.