University of Minnesota Law School Scholarship Repository Minnesota Law Review 1954 Severance of Joint Tenancies Robert W. Swenson Ronan E. Degnan Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Swenson, Robert W. and Degnan, Ronan E., "Severance of Joint Tenancies" (1954). Minnesota Law Review. 2204. https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mlr/2204 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Minnesota Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Minnesota Law Review collection by an authorized administrator of the Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. SEVERANCE OF JOINT TENANCIES* ROBERT W. SWENSON** AND RONAN E. DEGNAN*** In their casebook on Property, Professors Myres S. McDougal and David Haber have adopted this enviable title for the chapter on concurrent interests: Anachronism Redivivus.1 These words epito- mize rather well the current law relating to joint tenancies. The subject is thoroughly burdened with concepts which might be described as archaic if that were not such an understatement. This Article will examine one facet of joint tenancy law-the right of one tenant without the consent of the other to "sever" the joint tenancy and thereby defeat the "right of survivorship" of the other. As in many other areas of property law, the courts have character- ized "severance" with such formulism that there is neither consis- tency nor clarity in the governing principles. The nature of the right to sever a joint tenancy is intimately related to the legal metaphysics which surrounds the joint tenancy in general.