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Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Edition (1856)

SEVERANCE, pleading. When an action is brought in the name of several
plaintiffs, in which the plaintiffs must of necessity join, and one or more
of the persons so named do not appear, or make default after appearance, the
other may have judgment of severance, or, as it is technically called,
judgment ad sequendum solum.
2. But in personal actions, with the exception of those by executors,
and of detinue for charters, there can be no summons and severance. Co. Lit.
139.
3. After severance, the party severed can never be mentioned in the
suit, nor derive any advantage from it.
4. When there are several defendants, each of them may use such plea
as, he may think proper for his own defence; and they may join in the same
plea, or sever at their discretion; Co. Litt. 303, a except perhaps, in the
case of dilatory pleas. Hob. 245, 250. But when the defendants have once
united in the plea, they cannot afterwards sever at the rejoinder, or other
later stage of the pleading. Vide, generally, Bro. Summ. and Sev.; 2 Rolle,
488; Archb. Civ. Pl. 59.


SEVERANCE, estates. The act by which any one of the unities of a joint
tenancy is effected, is so called; because the estate is no longer a joint
tenancy, but is severed.
2. A severance may be effected in various ways, namely: 1. By
partition, which is either voluntary or compulsory. 2. By alienation of one
of the joint tenants, which turns the estate into a tenancy in common. 3. By
the purchase or descent of all the shares of the joint tenants, so that the
whole estate becomes vested in one only. Com. Dig. Estates by Grant, K 5; 1
Binn. R. 175.

3. In another and a less technical sense, severance is the separation
of a part of a thing from another; for example, the separation of machinery
from a mill, is a severance, and, in that case, the machinery which while
annexed to the mill was real estate, becomes by the severance; personalty,
unless such severance be merely temporary. 8 Wend. R. 587.