phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

Ninety percent of ownership

Posted by Gary on June 05, 2006

In Reply to: Ninety percent of ownership posted by Bob on June 05, 2006

: : What is that phrase that goes something like, "Ninety percent of ownership is posession", os something like that?

: : Jenny

: "Possession is nine tenths of the law" is the way it's usually rendered. I remembered "Possession is nine points of the law," but that's an archaic version (I have grown so old) and Google hits prefer the former, 25000 to 700. It means that at law, if you have possession of the property in question, you have a big advantage.
: (I was surprised not to find this in our archives... or did I miss something?)

Interesting that "possession is..." is used both in the USA and the UK. It seems to date back to at least 1650. It was eleven points then - that's decimalization for you.

There's also the slogan "84% of the wealth is held by 7% of the people".

  • 9/10 Lewis 06/June/06

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