Of the remedies for and against landlord and tenant, Of the landlord's remedy by action for breach of other cove- Of the action of affumpfit for breach of agreement. ibid. CHAPTER XVI. - By action on the cafe against the sheriff, on ftat. 8 Ann, c. 14. for removing the tenant's goods under an execution, Of the tenant's remedies against his landlord, (continued.) Of the tenant's remedies against his landlord, (continued.) By action of covenant for breach of covenant. Of diftrefs for damage-feafant and rescous. Of the action of trespass for immediate injuries to his posses- THE LAW OF LANDLORD AND TENANT, &c. &c. &c. CHAPTER I. SECTION I. Of Leafes in general. SECTION II. Of regiftering Leafes. SECTION I. Of Leafes in general; what and how made. PROPER ROPERTY, when it extends beyond the right of poffeffion and use, is the creature of pofitive law; and as there can be no individual right in things beyond the right of actual poffeffion and use, unless by virtue of municipal inftitution, the modes of enjoying property in things must be referred to pofitive law and be governed thereby for all things being, as far as they are capable, appropriated, muft, unless alienated according to the forms thereby prescribed, fall to the fhare of the civil occupant, whose title is fuperior to every perfon's, except his who claims by a better, viz. that of an alienee having a good title from the alienor. Of an Estate for Years. An estate for years is a contract for the poffeffion of lands or tenements for fome determinate period; and it 2 Bl.Com, 140. takes place, when a man lets them to another for the term of a certain number of years agreed upon between the leffor and the leffee, and the leffee enters thereon. If the lease be but for half a year, or a quarter, or any lefs time, this leffee is refpected as a tenant for years, and is ftyled fo in fome legal proceedings; a year being the shortest term of which the law, in this cafe, takes notice, Bac. Abr. tit. 2. Bl. Com. 141. This eftate is efteemed in law a middle kind of intereft, between an eftate for life and a tenancy at will: for those who held large diftri&ts and tracts of land being unac quainted with the arts of husbandry and tillage, found it their intereft to leafe out their demefnes, which, for want of care and cultivation, lay wafte, and afforded them little or no profit; and this way of letting for years was thought beft to answer the defign and intentions of the lord, as well as the expectations of the tenant: for if they had let them for life, this had given the tenants too great a power over the lord, because then they would have had a property in the freehold, and by fuffering diffeifins or feigned recoveries to be had against themselves, might have fhaken or endangered the inheritance of the owner; and on the other fide, if they had leafed their land only at will, few would have chosen to beftow any great pains or industry upon fo precarious a poffeffion, which the arbitrary will and pleafure of a peevish lord might have defeated. Thus, these eftates were originally granted to mere farmers or husbandmen, who every year rendered fome equivalent in money, provisions, or other rent, to the leffors or landlords; but in order to encourage them to manure and cultivate the ground, they had a permanent intereft granted them, not determinable at the will of the lord. Their poffeffion, however, was esteemed of fo little confequence, that they were rather confidered as the bailiffs or fervants of the lord, who were to receive and account for the profits at a fettled price, than as having any property of their own: they were, therefore, not allowed to have a freehold eftate, but their intereft, fuch as it was, vefted after their deaths in their executors, who were to make up the accounts of their their teftator with the lord, and his other creditors, and were entitled to the flock upon the farm. The leffee's eftate might also, by the antient law, be at any time defeated by a common recovery fuffered by the tenant of the freehold; which annihilated all leafes for years then fubfifting, unless afterwards renewed by the recoverer, whose title was supposed to be fuperior to his by whom those leases were granted. While eftates for years were thus precarious, it is no won- 2 Bl. Com. 142. der that they were usually very short, like our modern leafes upon rack-rent; and indeed, we are told that, by the antient law, no leafes for more than forty years were allowable, becaufe any longer poffeffion, (especially when given without any livery declaring the nature and duration of the eftate,) might tend to defeat the inheritance. Befides, fuch leafes Bac. Abr. tit. were only made to ferve the occafions and exigencies of the Leases. lord in cultivating and improving his demefnes; not to borrow money upon, or to raise portions for daughters, or fuch other ufes as are now made thereof: therefore there was no need to extend them to any great length of time, fince they* might be renewed as often as occafion required; the leffees likewise, if they were evicted, being only to recover damages, it would have been fruitless to prolong leafes for the term of a thousand years, when the perfons who would have to possess under fuch leases had no remedy for their damages, but by recourfe to the representatives of the original leffor. The law, however, that reftricted the duration of leases for 2 Bl. Com. 142. years to forty years, if it ever existed, was soon antiquated: for we may obferve in Madox's Collection of Antient Inftruments, fome leafes for years of an early date, which confiderably exceed that period; and long terms for three hundred years, or a thousand, were certainly in use in the time of Edward III. and probably of Edward I. But undoubtedly when by the ftatute 21 H. 8. c. 15. the termor (that is, he who is entitled to the term for years) was protected against these fictitious recoveries, and his interest rendered fecure and permanent, long terms began to be more frequent than before; and were afterwards extenfively introduced, being found extremely convenient for family fettlements and mortgages. |