Tit. 3. c. 2. § 44. or the waste done. This is a general principle to prevent suits; and as some decree must be made, the Court will make a complete one. But without such a foundation there is no precedent of the Court's decreeing damages; and I think it would be very improper to do it, as it would tend to great vexation and oppression of tenants: and I am glad no such precedent is to be found; for the cases cited do not come up to the present. In 2 P. Wms. 240. it is not Whitfield clear that no injunction was prayed. If there was, v. Bewett, then it is but a common case; if there was not, the plaintiff was entitled to a moiety of the timber against the defendant, and therefore proper matter of account only between them. As to 1 P. Wms. 406, the bill was against an executor for an account of assets; and in a case of a mine, which differs from timber, or other waste, it being a sort of trade, and proper for an account, not trover: and the Court has decreed accounts in cases of mines, which they would not do in any other, for that very resason; and because a better remedy can be given here than at law, by decreeing inspections under ground, &c. And here, if the plaintiffs have a right, they may have their action of trover." 11. If a lessee for years commits waste and dies, 2 Inst. 302. no action of waste will lie against his executors or administrators. But the executors or administrators of a tenant for years are punishable for waste done while they are in possession. 12. Tenants for years are exempted by the statute Accidents 6 Anne, which has been already stated, from all actions for damages on account of accidental fire. by Fire. Tit. 3. c. 2. $ 83. 13. In a modern case, where there was a covenant Bullock v. Dommitt, in a lease for years of a house, to rebuild, without any 6 Term R. exception; and the house was burnt down by acci- 650, TITLE VIII. ESTATE FOR YEARS. CHAP. I. Of the Origin and Nature of Estates for Years. CHAP. II. Of the Incidents to Estates for Years. CHAP. I. Of the Origin and Nature of Estates for Years. Estates less than Freehold. Origin of Estates for SECTION 1. AVING treated of the different freehold estates, HAI we now come to consider of those estates or interests in land that are less than freehold; of which there are four sorts: 1. Estates for years. 2. Estates at will. 3. Tenancies from year to year. 4. Estates at sufferance. 2. It has been stated, that after the conquest the estates of the great lords were cultivated by their villeins. In course of time the lords adopted the practice of allowing them to occupy parts of their lands at will, yielding a return of corn, hay, or other portion of their crops; as the precariousness of this tenure was a strong bar to the industry of the tenants, it became customary to grant them the lands for a certain number of years, by which they were enfranchised. Still their interest was infinitely inferior Lit. § 205. to an estate of freehold. 3. Estates for years were become common in Bracton's time, as appears from the following passage: -Poterit enim quis terram alicui concedere ad termi- Bract. 27 a. num annorum, et ille eandem infra terminum illum alteri dare. And a tenant for years was called firmarius. of. 4. "Tenant for term of years (says Littleton, § 58.) Description is where a man letteth lands or tenements to another for term of certain years, after the number of years that is accorded between the lessor and the lessee, and the lessee entereth by force of the lease; then is he tenant for years." 5. If an agreement be made for the possession of Lit. § 67. lands, but for half a year, or a quarter, or any less time, the lessee is considered as tenant for years, and is so styled in all legal proceedings; a year being the shortest period of which the law will in this case take notice. 6. Where an estate is limited to a person for 1 Inst. 45 b. 21 years, if J. S. shall so long live, it is an estate. for years only; not an estate for the life of J. S., because there is a fixed period beyond which it cannot last. 7. Where a person devises lands to his executors, 1 lust. 42 a. for payment of his debts, or until his debts are paid, I P. Wms. 8 Rep. 96 a. the executors only take an estate for so many years 509. as are necessary to raise the sum required. It is the Corbet's same where an estate is devised till such time as a Case, 4 Rep. 81 b. particular sum shall be raised out of the rents and profits thereof. 1 P. Wms. 518. 1 Inst. 45 b. 8. Lord Coke says, an estate for years is frequently called a term, terminus, which signifies, not only the period of time for which it is to continue, but also the estate and interest that passes for that period. Tit. 32. c. 5. And every estate or term for years must have a Lit. § 132. Gilb. Ten. 34. certain beginning, and a certain end, which must be ascertained at the time when the estate is created, either by the express limitation of the parties, or by a reference to some collateral act, which may, with equal certainty, measure its continuance. 9. There is a tenure between the lessor and his lessee for years, to which fealty is incident; and also a privity of estate between them. 10. Notwithstanding the permanent interest of tenants for years, yet their possession was esteemed of so little consequence, that they were rather considered as the bailiffs or servants of the lord, than as having any estate in the land. Their interests might 1 Inst. 46 a. be defeated by a recovery in a real action; because the recoveror was supposed to come in by a title paramount, therefore not bound by the contracts of Tit. 36. c. 11. the prior possessor; this was altered by the statute of Gloucester 1 Edw. I. and the statute 21 Hen. VIII. by which tenants for years are enabled to falsify recoveries had by collusion. Introduction of Long Terms. 1 Inst. 45 b. 11. While estates for years might be defeated by a recovery, it is no wonder that they were usually very short. Lord Coke, upon the authority of the Mirror, says, that by the ancient law, no lease was allowed for more than 40 years; because a longer possession, especially when given without livery, declaring the nature and duration of the estate created, might tend to defeat the inheritance. Sir 142. W. Blackstone observes that this law, if it ever existed, 2 Comm. was soon antiquated; for in Madox's collection of ancient charters there are some leases for years of an early date, which considerably exceed that period : that terms for 300 and 1000 years were certainly in use in the time of Edw. III., and probably in that of Edw. I.; and it appeared certain that after the statutes by which terms for years were protected from the operation of feigned recoveries, long terms were frequently created, for the purpose of defrauding the the lord's right of wardship, relief, and other feudal incidents. In modern times they have been still more extensively introduced in mortgages and family settlements. Seisin. 12. A tenant for years is not said to be seised A Tenant for of the lands, the possession not being given to him Years has no by the ceremony of livery of seisin. Nor does the mere delivery of a lease for years, vest estate in the lessee, but only gives him a right of entry on the land. When he has actually entered, the estate becomes vested in him, and he is then pos any sessed, not properly of the land, but of the term for Gilb.Ten.34. years; the seisin of the freehold still remaining in the lessor. 13. This distinction between the possession of the tenant for years, and the seisin of the freehold, was fully established in Bracton's time:-Item dare potest quis terram quam alius tenet ad terminum annorum, salvo tamen firmario, termino suo: quia istæ possessiones sese compatiuntur in una re; quod unus habeat liberum tenementum, et alius terminum. And it has been stated that the possession of a lessee for years is considered as the possession of the person Tit. 1. § 26. entitled to a freehold. |