This popular legal term is a phrase that means that property is easier to obtain when a person is in possession of something, and difficult to enforce when a person does not. Implied possession is when it is assumed that you own an object based on its control. For example, you drive a car with a child in a front seat. The police arrest you and find drugs in the glove compartment. Since you are the only adult in the car who is able to pick up drugs and put them in the car, the police could charge you with implied possession. If there are two adults in the car and the police find drugs under a seat, the police could say that the person sitting in that seat was constructively possessing the drugs. Some think that the phrase “possession is 9/10 of the law” comes from the old Scottish proverb that says: “Possession is eleven points in the law, and they say they are only twelve.” Although modern courts do not formally respect the principle of “nine-tenths of the law”, possession still plays a role today. In 1998, a Texas court recognized the “nine-tenths” principle, but clarified that ownership is only one part of a “hierarchy of title.” In re Garza, 984 p.W.2d 344 (Tex. App.–Amarillo 1998). The Garza court concluded that if possession (in this case, a motor vehicle) outweighs the claim of a party who has neither registration title nor possession, mere possession is subordinated to the claims of a party who has ownership of the document. Actual possession means that you have held something physically. It could be in your pockets, in your hands, or in a bag you carried.
There are many cases where an accused tries to argue that he did not know what was in his pocket or even in his pockets because the bag or pants belonged to someone else. Most of the time, a judge or jury will blame you for everything you wore directly, and it`s very difficult to create a reasonable doubt that it wasn`t yours. The importance of property to property claims is still reflected in at least some legal doctrines. The doctrine of “adverse ownership” gives a party who has continuously occupied land legal title to real property, even if ownership of that property is held by another party. Implied ownership means you had instant access to something (like under the seat or glove compartment of a car, or in your home). In fact, also called possession, actual possession is as most of us would describe it: the physical custody or control of an object. For example, a person wearing a watch actually has possession of the watch around their wrist. It is important to note that the phrase “possession is nine-tenths of the law” is not literally true – it is a rule of force and perhaps a truism of human nature, but it is not a law. Depending on how and when it is used, the term possession has a variety of possible meanings.
Possession, in particular, often plays a crucial role in criminal cases involving drugs and weapons. For example, if you own a car and lend it to a friend, your friend owns the car, but lending the car to them does not transfer ownership of the vehicle. The regulation on constitutional violations is simple. If the police find evidence as a result of a constitutional violation, the evidence they have found is almost always inadmissible in court. For example, if the police illegally search you and find an illegal weapon, the weapon is likely to be inadmissible due to a Fourth Amendment violation. If the prosecutor`s office can`t use the weapon as evidence, it can`t prove that you owned the gun. Implied possession is easier to question than active possession because it is easier to argue that you did not know the object or that you did not place it there. Maybe you borrowed the car or you just got in as a passenger and you didn`t search the car to see if there were weapons or drugs because finding a car is not a normal thing. Police and prosecutors have to prove the facts you associate with the object, so the fewer connections you have or the more people could have placed it there, the harder it is to convict you.
This concept has been applied to both tangible and intangible products. [9] In particular, “knowledge management” poses problems with regard to this principle. [10] Google`s possession of a large amount of content has led to some caution due to this principle. [11] It was said that there was a time when attitudes towards rights over genetic resources were that ownership was nine-tenths of the law, and for the other tenth the principle that biological resources were the heritage of humanity. [12] It is generally used in connection with being caught committing a crime. If you are stopped by the police while carrying evidence such as drugs or weapons, people might say, “Possession is nine-tenths of the law,” believing that you have a 90% chance (because 9/10 (or “nine-tenths”) have a 90% chance of being charged and convicted of committing the crime. Conversely, criminals have often used this phrase to convince someone to commit a crime by explaining that if they hide or destroy evidence, there is a high probability of not being charged or convicted. But are these criminals really right? Or is this sentence completely wrong? Let`s find out more about this topic.
