Chose

Chose (pronounced: /ʃoʊz/, French for 'thing') is a term used in common law tradition to refer to rights in property, specifically a combined bundle of rights. A chose describes the enforcement right which a party possesses in an object. The use of chose extends from the English use of French within the courts. In English and commonwealth law, all personal things fall into one of two categories, either choses in action or choses in possession. English law uses a chose to refer to a bundle of rights, traditionally relating to property which may be utilised in certain circumstances. Thus, a chose in action refers to a bundle of personal rights which can only be enforced or claimed by a chose-holder bringing an action through the court to enforce the action. In English law, this category is enormously wide. This is contrasted with a chose in possession which represents rights which can be enforced or acquired by taking physical possession of the chose. This may be, for example a legal mortgage. Both choses in possession and choses in action create separate proprietary interests. What differs between each is the method in which each chose may be enforced. This is dependent on the possessory nature of the reference object.A chose in action or thing in action is a right to sue. It has been made trite law, since Torkington v Magee, that a chose in action is a legal expression used to describe all personal rights of property which can only be claimed or enforced by action. It is therefore a categorisation of interests in assets, the enforcement of which cannot be secured without the use of a court. It is an intangible property right recognised and protected by the law, that has no existence apart from the recognition given by the law, and that confers no present possession of a tangible object. Since incorporeal assets such as claims for repayment of debts, or assigned rights in contracts cannot be subject to possession, they cannot be categorised as choses in possession. In certain circumstances, the chose in action creates a separate proprietary right, independent from the property in which it may reference. This new property can be subject to charges or can be assigned. For example, a right to enforce and receive payment for a debt, obtain money by way of damages for breach of contract, or receive recompense for a wrong is a chose in action. Two consequences result from this, firstly, they are claims which cannot be executed by the chose-holder without the enforcement of legal proceedings. Second, these examples may be themselves assigned, novated, or otherwise used by the chose-holder. If the economic value of the asset is the right to sue. Historically, documents which represented a title to a chose in action of a particular kind, such as bonds or other documentary intangibles were themselves chose in possession because, similar to promissory notes they were negotiable and thus could be physically seised. That is to say, they were transferred solely by delivery of the document themselves. Today, most bonds and other financial instruments have been dematerialised and are issued as a single global note. The consequence of this is that most financial instruments are now choses in actionheld by the beneficial party against the broker holding assets in a securities depository such CREST, where investors own interlocking interests in trusts, rather than the actual issued note. The development of dematerialised securities brings some objects which are termed as chose in action today full circle, such as bonds or bill of lading which the court first developed as choses in action, and which, without the use of a negotiable instrument no longer operate as choses in possession. Currently, claims which are treated as being 'locked up' inside the paper includes pledge, negotiables, and custodial bailment.A chose in possession refers to a bundle of rights and remedies, (which in England are inextricably linked), of an object of tangible personal property that can be physically possessed by the owner and can be transferred by delivery. Relation, or rather, capacity of control and apparent dominion is required as the foundation of the alleged chose in possession. This is impossible with incorporeal rights. Possession and possession-based techniques are of little relevance to modern financial markets, but still play a substantial role in commercial and retail lending. Therefore a chose in possession 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 ('of a feral nature', or wild). 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.