from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
SPECIAL PROPERTY. This term is used as synonymous with qualified or limited
property. It is that property which is not perfect in the hands of the
possessor, but his right is qualified or limited; as, where a person is
possessed of an animal ferae naturae, he has a property in such animal, but
this is not a general right, for if the animal should escape, and be taken
by another person, the latter only would have a special property in it.
2. Again, a person may have a special property in a chattel in
consequence of the peculiar circumstances of the owner; a bailee, for
example, has a special property in the thing bailed. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 475 to
477.