Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 12.djvu/283

263 ^'POWERS COUPLED WITH AN INTEREST:' 263 are united in the same person. . . . But if the interest or estate passes with the power, and vests in the person by whom the power is to be ex- ercised, such person acts in his own name. The estate, being in him, passes from him by a conveyance in his own name. . . . " We know that a power to A to sell for the benefit of B, engrafted on an estate conveyed to A, may be exercised at any time, and is not affected by the death of the person who created it. It is, then, a power coupled with an interest, although the person to whom it is given has no in- terest in .its exercise. His power is coupled with an interest in the thing." In speaking of the instrument under consideration in Hunt v. Rousmanier, it was said, " This instrument contains no powers of conveyance or of assignment, but is a simple power to sell and convey." It was also held that an interest in that which was to be pro- duced by the exercise of the power, or the interest in the proceeds of a sale made under a power to sell did not constitute a power coupled with an interest. The case of Hunt v. Rousmanier is an illustration of this dis- tinction. In that case a power of sale of a vessel had been given to the donee of the power as security for a loan. It was held that such a power did not constitute a power coupled with an interest. The phrase " an authority coupled with an interest " (in which the word " authority" is equivalent to " power") is to be found in Coke, by whom it was construed as it is in Hunt v. Rousmanier. A customary power in the lord of a manor to grant estates in fee simple is, according to him, " an authority coupled with an interest."^ A power in a tenant for years to receive livery of seisin for a remainder-man is a power coupled with an interest.^ The power in the patron and in the ordinary to confirm a lease made by a person (parson) is a power coupled with an interest, and so is the power of a disseisee to confirm a lease made by a disseisor.^ In commenting upon section 169 of Littleton, Coke says that a devise that the executors may sell is a bare power, but a devise of lands to executors to be sold is a power coupled with an interest.* On the other hand, power to deliver seisin by the force of a deed of feoffment is not a power coupled with an interest.^ 1 Coke upon Littleton, 52 b. * Coke upon Littleton, 49 b. 8 Coke's Commentary, § 520, Littleton.
 * See also Coke upon Littleton, 181 b. ^ Coke upon Littleton, 52 b.