The ownership of personal property may be transferred by operation of the law in any of the following manners:

(1) By forfeiture; (2) succession; (3) judgment; (4) intestacy; (5) insolvency, and (6) marriage. The transfer of personal property by marriage was considered under the subject of Domestic Relations,31 and transfers by insolvency will be taken up under the subject of Bankruptcy.32

Forfeiture consists in the loss of goods or chattels by their owner, either to the government as a punishment for the violation of law, or to an individual as a penalty for a breach of contract.

The law at present looks with a great deal of disfavor upon forfeitures. Forfeitures for crime are now of rare occurrence, and wherever possible the law will relieve against forfeitures for breach of contract.

Succession is the method by which new stockholders in a corporation succeed to the rights of their predecessors; it is the method which renders it possible for a corporation to have a continued existence in spite of the changes in the membership of its stockholders.

The transfer of property by judgment will be considered in the treatment of the adjective branches of the law.

31 Vol. IV, Sub. 10.

32 Vol. IX, Sub. 29.