A dictionary would define the word "title" as used in our context as:

(1) A combination of all the elements that constitute the legal right to own, possess, use, control, enjoy and dispose of real estate or an inheritable right therein. (2) The rights of ownership recognized and protected by law. Additions or addendums to the policy where more coverage is provided.

For the purpose of our discussion, a title could best be described as what you get when you buy real estate. You don't actually receive the land but rather the legal right to the land. No one can pick up a piece of land and hand it to you. You can't put it in your pocket and carry it away as you could with other property. All you get is the title, and this title gives you the right to enter upon the land and to possess, occupy, use, control, enjoy and dispose of the land.

Though you can't see, touch or feel a title it is very real. It is real because the law says it exists and describes it, its characteristics and its effect. It is said that a title is composed of a bundle of rights and that such rights may vary from title to title. A "right" may be a term more familiar to you than the term "title". As a citizen you have many rights even though you can't see or touch them. The courts speak of good titles, bad titles, defective titles, perfect titles, and even describe some titles as marketable titles, but no one has ever seen a title. Rather, what we do see is "evidence of title" such as a deed or a court decree which passes title from one person to another.

The word "title" is applicable to virtually every estate and interest in real estate which a person may own. If a person can own it, they can hold title to it for, as stated above, title to anything constitutes rights of ownership recognized and protected by law. Estates and interests in real estate vary in effect, extent, and quality. The highest quality estate which a person can have in real estate is known as a "fee simple" estate or interest. The term "fee simple" is an old English term brought over by the early colonists. Generally speaking, it means unqualified ownership of land with unqualified powers of disposition. Unqualified ownership does not mean that ownership cannot be subject to outstanding encumbrances and interests of a lower quality than fee simple. A person may hold a fee simple title to real estate, but such title may be subject to easements, mortgages, restrictions, leases, mining rights, and numerous other