REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY

a basic division of property in English common law, roughly corresponding to the division between immovables and movables in civil law. At common law most interests in land and fixtures (such as permanent buildings) were classified as real-property interests. Leasehold interests in land, however, together with interests in tangible movables (goods, animals, money) and most interests in intangibles (such as stocks, bonds, or bank accounts) were classified as personal-property interests. Personal property, also known as chattels, could be further subdivided into chattels personal (interests in tangible movables and in intangibles) and chattels real (personal property interests in land, of which leaseholds were the most important). Chattels personal could be further subdivided into choses in possession (interests in tangible movables, including animals, merchandise, goods) and choses in action (interests in intangibles, including promissory notes and rights of action). The distinction between real and personal property, though still observed today, is of less significance in Anglo-American legal systems than it once was.