Definition
Capable of being demised; that is, capable of being leased or transferred by a demise. A property interest is demisable when its owner or holder has sufficient legal capacity and title to grant possession to another for a term, whether by lease, sublease, or other conveyance operating as a demise. The term describes a quality of the estate or interest itself, not merely the intent of the holder. An estate that is demisable may be leased without restriction; one that is not demisable cannot be validly conveyed in that manner — either because of some legal incapacity in the holder, a restraint on alienation, the nature of the interest itself, or statutory limitation.
The noun form demisability refers to the quality or condition of being demisable — that is, the attribute of an estate that makes it susceptible to being demised.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Capable of being leased.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Capable of being leased; as, a demisable estate.
The common and legal meanings are here closely aligned, but the common definitions compress a meaningful legal distinction. In ordinary usage, "capable of being leased" suggests a practical or physical question — can this property be rented out? In legal usage, demisability is a formal property of the estate: it turns on the holder's title, the nature of the interest, and whether any legal bar (such as a restriction in fee, a condition against assignment, or statutory incapacity) prevents a valid demise. A property may be physically leasable but not legally demisable.
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Why It Matters in Research
DEMISABLE is a term of art drawn from the law of property and conveyancing, and its use in historical sources tracks the technical vocabulary of demise rather than modern lease terminology. Researchers working in pre-twentieth-century property records, pleadings in ejectment, and treatises on real property will encounter the term regularly; in modern sources it appears most often in maritime contexts, specifically in the law of bareboat or demise charters, where the question of whether a vessel interest is demisable carries significant practical consequence for liability and registration.
The primary research trap is treating demisable as merely synonymous with "leaseable." In historical real property law, the demisability of an estate was a gatekeeping question that determined whether ejectment would lie, whether certain estates tail or life estates could be the subject of a valid lease, and whether a lessee could maintain a possessory action. Burrill's citation to Crabb's Real Property points researchers toward a treatise-based tradition where demisability was a structured analytical category — not simply a descriptive label.
In the maritime context, the demise charter is the specific form of vessel charter that transfers possession and control of the vessel entirely to the charterer, making the charterer the owner pro hac vice. The demisability of a vessel — whether the owner's interest is of a kind that can be so transferred — is a distinct question from whether a time or voyage charter is available. Researchers crossing from property law into admiralty will need to recalibrate: the core concept (transfer of possession sufficient to constitute a demise) is shared, but the surrounding doctrine differs substantially.
Researchers should also note that Burrill's entry is spare, pointing only to Crabb. The fuller doctrinal treatment of which estates are and are not demisable — and why — lives in the property treatises, not the dictionaries. Crabb's Real Property, Blackstone's Commentaries, and the older English conveyancing manuals are the primary sources for the analytical framework.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary offers only a two-element entry: the definition ("that may be demised") and a citation to Crabb's Real Property at section 768. The companion noun demisability is noted immediately after, with the same citation. This brevity is characteristic of Burrill's approach to derivative adjective forms — the substantive doctrine is left to the treatises. No divergence among historical dictionaries is available from the source material provided, and the Webster's 1913 entry confirms that the term had sufficient currency to enter general reference works, though without legal elaboration.
What the historical dictionaries collectively miss is the operative significance of demisability as a threshold question in property litigation — particularly in ejectment, where the plaintiff's ability to establish a valid demise was foundational to the action. The dictionary record preserves the definition but not the doctrinal weight.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Charter Parties — Voyage, Time, Bareboat/Demise, and Hybrid Charters (The Law Mind Military, Veterans & Admiralty Law Encyclopedia): Essential for researchers encountering demisable in maritime contexts. The demise charter is the form of charter that most directly implicates demisability of a vessel interest.
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