In order to aſſiſt ſuch perſons as have any eſtate in remainder, reverſion, or expectancy, after the death of others, againſt fraudulent concealments of their deaths, it is enabled by the ſtatute 6 Ann. c. 18. that all perſons on whoſe lives any lands or tenements are holden, ſhall (upon application to the court of chancery and order made thereupon) once in every year, if required, be produced to the court, or it's commiſſioners; or, upon neglect or refuſal, they ſhall be taken to be actually dead, and the perſon entitled to ſuch expectant eſtate may enter upon and hold the lands and tenements, till the party ſhall appear to be living.
Before we conclude the doctrine of remainders and reverſions, it may be proper to obſerve, that whenever a greater eſtate and a leſs coincide and meet in one and the ſame perſon, without any intermediate eſtate[1], the leſs is immediately annihilated; or, in the law phraſe, is ſaid to be merged, that is, ſunk or drowned, in the greater. Thus, if there be tenant for years, and the reverſion in fee-ſimple deſcends to or is purchaſed by him, the term of years is merged in the inheritance, and ſhall never exiſt any more. But they muſt come to one and the ſame perſon in one and the ſame right; elſe, if the freehold be in his own right, and he has a term in right of another (en auter droit) there is no merger. Therefore, if tenant for years dies, and makes him who hath the reverſion in fee his executor, whereby the term of years veſts alſo in him, the term ſhall not merge; for he hath the fee in his own right, and the term of years in the right of the teſtator, and ſubject to his debts and legacies. So alſo, if he who hath the reverſion in fee marries the tenant for years, there is no merger; for he hath the inheritance in his own right, the leaſe in the right of his wife[2]. An eſtate-tail is an exception to this rule: for a man may have in his own right both an eſtate-tail and a reverſion in fee; and the eſtate-tail, though a leſs eſtate, ſhall not merge in the fee[3]. For eſtates-tail are protected and preſerved from
