fine". And so, according to some, corporations aggregate, as a mayor or commonalty, and the like, being a secular corporation, may together levy a fine of lands belonging to the corporation, as a single person may°. But a spiritual corporation, whether sole or aggregate, as bishops, dean and chapter, heads and fellows of colleges, or the like, cannot levy fines of the corporate lands; for the disabling statutes, which prevent ecclesiastics from alienating their church lands for any longer time than three lives or twenty-one years, by necessary implication prohibit them from levying fines. And by the statutes 11 Hen. 7, c. 20, and 32 Hen. 8, c. 28, women seised of jointures or estates-tail of the gift of their husbands, and husbands seised jure uxoris, are prohibited from levying fines of such estates. Persons outlawed in personal actions may levy fines, for their estates still remain in them, although they have forfeited the rents and profits P. And a person who has committed murder, may, it seems, before conviction, levy a fine, if the deed to lead the uses be prior to the time of committing the offence. The king, it seems, cannot levy a fine, because no writ of covenant can be brought against him; but if a fine be levied to the king, he may then make a grant and render, which will bind him". Joint-tenants, tenants in common, and coparceners, may levy fines of their respective parts, but it will be a severance of the tenancy (1). (1) And if joint-tenant levy a fine of the whole, it will not amount to an ouster of his companion, unless he omit to make his claim within five years. FINES. FINES. To whom a fine may be levied. 2. To whom a fine may be levied. With respect to the persons to whom a fine may be levied, it is to be observed, that all persons who are capable of taking by grant or deed in pais, may be good conusees and take by fine; a fine may therefore be levied to " any man or woman, sole or covert, of full age or under age, any mad or lunatic person, idiot, or man de non sane memory, any man in or out of prison, or beyond sea, any person attainted of felony or treason, or outlawed in a penal action, a bastard, a clerk, convict, an alien, and all others, except such as are civilly dead, as monks and the like; and it will be good." And where a fine is levied to a feme covert or an infant, they need not be examined as they are when they are conusors of the fine, because the law presumes every one's assent to a grant that is for his benefit". So corporations, whether civil or spiritual, may, with the consent of the justices of the court of Common Pleas, be conusees, and beneficially take by fine'; but in levying fines to corporations or fraternities, care must be taken to describe them by their real and true name or appellation, as named in the charter and foundation of it; for as it has no existence but by force of such charter, if it be called by any other name than is there given it, it is not the same corporation". But a fine sur conusance de droit come ceo, &c. cannot, generally speaking, be levied to any person who is not a party to the writ of covenant, because no other than parties to the writ are before the court; but yet it is said, that a fine may be levied to the demandant by the vouchee, or to the vouchee by the demandant, though they are no parties to the writ, because the vouchee is, in supposition of law, the tenant of the land. So therefore w Ibid. * Ibid.; 2 Inst. 513. 3 Co. 29; Shep. P. C. a fine may be levied by the tenant to the demandant, or by the demandant to him". FINES. V. OF WHAT THINGS A FINE MAY BE LEVIED, AND BY WHAT DESCRIPTION. Ir may be taken as a general rule, that a fine may be levied of all things of which a præcipe quod reddat lies, and of all things which are inheritable and in esse at the time of the fine levied, whether the thing be ecclesiastical and made temporal, or temporal; or whereof a præcipe quod faciat, doth lie, as the writ of customs and services; or a præcipe quod permittat, as of an office, to have a common way, &c.; or a præcipe quod teneat, as a writ of covenant to levy a fine, and the like. So of an honor, manor, island, barony, castle, messuage, cottage, mill, toft, curtilage, dove-house, garden, orchard, land, meadow, pasture, wood, underwood, chapel, river, chauntry, corody, office, fishing, warren, fair, rectory, mines, a view of frankpledge, waif, estray, felons, goods, deodands, hospital, furze, heath, moor, rent, common, advowson, parsonage, vicarage, hundred, way, ferry, franchise, seigniory, reversion, toll, tallage, pickage, pontage, aquitail, services, portion of tithes, oblations, ecclesiastical or spiritual property in lay hands, or the like. To which may be added, shares in the New River water, of which fines are levied by the description of so much land covered with water; but when a fine or recovery of these shares are necessary, there must be three several fines and recoveries", this river running through the several counties of Hertford, Middlesex and London. z Dyer, 179; Plow. 146; 2 Inst. 514. a Ibid.; Shep. Prac. Couns. 13, by 32 Hen. 8, c.7; West. Symb. in his Tract of Fines; Co. Read. 11. b 2 Inst. 513. FINES. Where money is agreed to be laid out in lands to be settled in tail, a fine cannot be levied of the money, but a decree of a court of equity will bind it as much as a fine alone would have bound the land if it had been bought and settled "; but where the estate-tail is of such a nature as would require a recovery, and the remainder-man has but a chance for the estate, as the tenant in tail may happen to die before the recovery suffered, or in a vacation when a recovery cannot be suffered, a court of equity, whose business it is to aid the intent of parties, will not, in violation of such intent, decree the payment of the money to the tenant in tail, but decree it to be laid out in ́a purchase of land, to be settled according to the direction of the party, in order that the chance of the remainderman may be preserved. But in order to render these things capable of passing by the fine, care must be taken that they are named in the writ of covenant, for that being the foundation of the fine, nothing can pass by it unless by way of render, which is not there named, for that alone is the subject of the suit and compromise; but a pecuniary rent or other redditus may be granted, or rather created and secured by fine, though not named in the writ, because that may be the consideration of the compromise by the parties. So of reversions and remainders". A fine may be of a rent-charge de novo, or which had no being before, or of a chief rent or other rent not in esse, but not of annuity, though payable to a man and his heirs, because this is only a personal inheritance'. But a fine cannot be levied of lands held in ancient demesne *. • 1 P. Wms. 130; 2 Atk. 453;3 Ibid. 447; 1 Ves. 146. 1 P. Wms. 471, 485; Pultney v. The Earl of Darlington, 1 Bro. Chan. Rep. 223; and see 39 & 40 Geo.3, c. 56, and ante vol. 1. p. 26. 87 Co. 38. i Shep. Prac. Couns. 12. 1 Stra. 106; 21 Edw. 3, 18 Edw. 4, 22; West. Symb. part 2, s. 25. * 8 Co. 145. 44; With respect to the description by which things should be named in a writ of covenant and concord of a fine, it is to be observed, that in strictness, the same precision is requisite as in the writ of præcipe quod reddat, in an adversary suit, as the shire, town, parish or hamlet where the lands lie, for the place where it lies is considered to be part of its name'; but it being universally known and taken as an amicable composition upon a feigned suit, instituted for the sole purpose of effecting a conveyance of land from one person to another, it is construed with the same liberality as other conveyances, and therefore an honor will pass by the name of a manor, as well as by its own proper name; and that though the town or place, or towns or places in which it lies, be not mentioned"; and although it was formerly held to be necessary in levying a fine of a manor to describe it by its demesne services, &c. yet since fines are now considered to be common assurances, they will pass by the name of a manor with its appurtenances". So other things may pass in fines by the same names they are granted in deeds, as a castle or hundred, being parcel of a manor, may pass by the name of the manor of which it is parcel; and one manor, being parcel of another manor, may pass by the name of that manor of which it is parcel. And so, though it be not a real manor at all, but only a reputed manor, it will pass by the name of a manor, as will lands reputed to be parcel of a manor pass by a fine levied of such manor with its appurtenances P. So by the name of a messuge, a house, a curtilage, a garden, an orchard, a dove-house, a shop, or mill, as parcel of the same, will pass. As will a cottage, a toft, a cham FINES. By what denomination. |