21 H VIII. c. 15 13 Co. 6. 1 Roll. 443. 3 Bulst. 245. 248. 11 Co. 33. 2 Leon. 65. of Years may fal No. 12. 21 Henry VIII. c. 15-Fermors shall enjoy their Leases against Recoveries by feigned Titles, &c. afore this Time divers Persons have made Leases of their Manors, Lands, Tenements, and other Hereditaments, 'sometime by their Indentures, and sometime without Writings, to other Persons for Term of Years, taking of them great Fines for the Incomes of the same Leases; and after the same Leasors, their Heirs, or Assigns, have caused and suffered Recoveries to be had against them in the Court of our Sovereign Lord the King, and in other Lords Courts, upon feigned and untrue Titles, by Craft or Covin to put the same Termers from their said Terms; and after such Recoveries had, the same Recoverers, by Reason of such • Recoveries and Judgments, have entered into the same Manors, • Lands, Tenements, and other Hereditaments so to Ferm letten, and 'thereof have expulsed the said Fermers, contrary to their said Leases, ⚫ Covenants, and Agreements; and because it was doubted to some • Persons, whether the said Termers might falsify such Recoveries, · or not :' II. Be it therefore enacted by the King our Sovereign Lord, by the Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, Tenant for Term in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the sify a signed Re: same, That all such Termers shall and may falsify for his Term only covery had against such Recoveries, as well heretofore had, as hereafter to be had, in him in the Rever such Wise and Form as a Tenant of a Freehold shall and may do by the Course of the Common Law, where such Tenant of Freehold was ◆ Ed. 1. stat. 1. neither Privy nor Party to the same Recovery. sion 6. 11. Years for Rent or The Remedy III. And that the same Termers, their Executors and Assigns, of the Recoverers notwithstanding such Recoveries so had, shall retain, hold, and enjoy against Tenant for their said Terms, according to their said Leases against all such Recoverers, their Heirs, and Assigns, as they should or might have done against the said Lessors, if such Recovery had not been had ne suffered; and that the said Recoverers, their Heirs, and Assigns, after such Recovery so had, shall have like Remedy against the said Termers, their Executors, or Assigns, by Avowry or Action of Debt, for the Rents and Services reserved upon the same Leases, being due after the same Recoveries; and also like Actions against them for Waste done, after the same Recoveries so had; in like Manner and Form, as the said Leasors should or might have had, if the same Reoveries had never been had. No Statute or Ex shall be avoided covery. IV. And also be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, ecution by Elegit That no Manner of Statute of the Staple, Statute Merchant, nor by a feigned Re-Execution by Elegit, be hereafter avoided, or in any wise made frustrate, by Means of any such feigned Recovery; but that all Persons Co. Lit. 104. b. having any Lands, Tenements, or other Hereditaments in Execution, or being intitled to have Execution of any Manors, Lands, or Tenements by any such Means, shall have by Force of this Statute like Remedy to avoid and falsify the same Recoveries, as before is ordained and provided for the Lease for Term of Years. t No. 13. 32 Henry VIII. c. 33.-An Act that wrongful Disseisin is no Descent in Law THERE divers Persons of their insatiable Minds have hereto- 3o H. VIII. c. 83. WHERE divere Pers, and without Title, entered into Manors, 13 Co. 6. 'Lands, Tenements and other Hereditaments, and wrongfully disseised 1 Brown. 131. the rightful Owners and Possessors thereof, and so being seised by Vin. V. 9. 79. 'Disseisin, have thereof died seised, by Reason of which dying seised, 'the Disseisee, or such other Persons as before such Descent might 'have lawfully entered into the said Manors, Lands, and Tenements, 'were and be thereby clearly excluded of their Entry into the said 'Manors, Lands, and Tenements, and put to their Action for their Remedy and Recovery therein, to their great Costs and Charges;' for Reformation whereof, be it enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament, That the dying seised hereafter of any such Disseisor, of or in any Manors, Lands, Tenements, or other Hereditaments, having no Right or Title therein, shall not be taken or deemed from henceforth any such Descent in the Law, for to toll or take away the Entry of any such Person or Persons, or their Heirs, session in the Diswhich at the Time of the same Descent had good and lawful Title seisor before his of Entry into the said Manors, Lands, Tenements, or Heredita- Death. ments, except that such Disseisor hath had the peaceable Possession Dyer, f. 219. of such Manors, Lands, Tenements, or Hereditaments, whereof he Co. Lit. 238, shall so die seised, by the Space of five Years next after the Disseisin Plowd. 47. therein by him committed, without Entry or continual Claim by or Hob. 243. of such Person or Persons as have lawful Title thereunto. Five Years Pos 256. a. 4 Ann. c. 16. No. 14. 32 Henry VIII. c. 34.-Concerning Grantees of Reversions to take Advantage of the Conditions to be performed by the Lessees. before 32 H. VIII. c. 34. astical and Religious Persons, have made sundry Leases, Demises and Grants to divers other Persons, of sundry Manors, 'Lordships, Ferms, Meases, Lands, Tenements, Meadows, Pastures, * or other Hereditaments, for Term of Life or Lives, or for Term of 1 Roll 81, 359. 'Years, by Writing under their Seal or Seals, containing certain 2 Roll 170. Conditions, Covenants and Agreeements to be performed, as well Cro. El. 457. on the Part and Behalf of the said Lessees and Grantees, their Cro. Jac. 521. Executors and Assigns, as on the Behalf of the said Lessors and Godb. 161. 'Grantors, their Heirs and Successors; and forasmuch as by the pl. 227, 276. ⚫ Common Law of this Realm, no Stranger to any Covenant, Action, pl. 391. Vaugh. 39. or Condition, shall take any Advantage or Benefit of the same, by Stile 326. any Means or Ways in the Law, but only such as be Parties or 1 Mod. 192. Puivies thereunto, by the Reason whereof, as well all Grantees of 1 Show. 284, • Reversions, as also all Grantees and Patentees of the King our 285. Sovereign Lord, of sundry Manors, Lordships, Granges, Ferms, 1 Salk. 185. •Meases, Lands, Tenements, Meadows, Pastures, or other Here- 1 Vent. 10. ditaments late belonging to Monasteries, and other Religious and 1 Sid. 401, 402. Ecclesiastical Houses dissolved, suppressed, renounced, relinquished, 2 Bulstr. 282. No. 14: 32 H. VIII. c. 34. Moor 93, pl. 230 94 pl. 232. 'forfeited, given up, or by other Means come to the Hands and Possession of the King's Majesty since the fourth Day of February, the seven and twentieth Year of his most noble Reign, be excluded to have any Entry or Action against the said Lessees and Grantees, 159 pl. 300. their Executors or Assigus, which the Lessors before that Time 242 pl. 380. might by the Law have had against the same Lessees for the Breach 243 pl. 382. of any Condition, Covenant or Agreement comprised in the Inden525 pl. 691.tures of their said Leases, Demises and Grants: Be it therefore 527 pl. 695. enacted by the King our Sovereign Lord, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by Authority of the same, That as well all and every Persons, and Bodies Politick, their Heirs, Successors and Assigns, which have or shall have any Gift or Grant of our said Sovereign Lord by his Letters Patents of any Lordships, Manors, Lands, Tenements, Rents, Parsonages, Tithes, Portions, or any other Hereditaments, or of any other Hereditaments, or of any Reversion or Reversions of the same, which did belong or appertain to any of the said Monasteries, and other Religious and Ecclesiastical Houses, dissolved, suppressed, relinquished, forfeited, or by any other Means come to the King's Hands, since the said fourth Day of February the seven and twentieth Year of his most noble Reign, or which at any Time heretofore did belong or Grantees of Re- appertain to any other Person or Persons, and after came to the Hands versions may take of our said Sovereign Lord, as also all other Persons being Grantees or Advantage of Con- Assignees to or by our said Sovereign Lord the King, or to or by any nants against the Other Person or Persons than the King's Highness, and the Heirs, Lessees of the Executors, Successors and Assigns of every of them, shall and may have and enjoy like Advantages against the Lessees, their Executors, Administrators and Assigns, by Entry for Non-payment of the Rent, or for doing of Waste or other Forfeiture; and also shall and may have and enjoy all and every such like, and the same Advantage, Benefit and Remedies by Action only, for not performing of other Conditions, Covenants or Agreements contained and expressed in the Indentures of their said Leases, Demises or Grants, against all and every the said Lessees and Farmers and Grantees, their Executors, Administrators and Assigns, as the said Lessors or Grantors themselves, or their Heirs or Successors, ought, should, or might have had and enjoyed at any Time or Times, in like Manner and Form, if the Reversion of such Lands, Tenements or Hereditaments had not come to the Hands of our said Sovereign Lord, his Heirs and Cro. Car. 24, Successors, should or might have had and enjoyed in certain Cases, 44, 137. by Virtue of the Act made at the first Session of this present Parliament, if no such Grant by Letters Patents had been made by his Highness. ditions and Cove same Lands. Moor 876. 131, 309. Bro. Entre con- Cro. El 600, 863. Cro. Jac. 305. Lessees may have against their Grantors. Dyer, f. 257. 3 Co. 63. as II. Moreover be it enacted by Authority aforesaid, That all the like Remedy Farmers, Lessees and Grantees of Lordships, Manors, Lands, against the Gran Tenements, Rents, Parsonages, Tithes, Portions, or any tes of the Kever Hereditaments for Terin of Years, Life or Lives, their Executots, other Stons which they might have had Administrators and Assigns, shall and may have like Action, Advantage and Remedy against all and every Person and Persons and Bodies Politick, their Heirs, Successors and Assigns, which have or shall have any Gift or Grant of the King our Sovereign Lord, or of any other Person or Persons, of the Reversion of the same Manors, Lands, Tenements, and other Hereditaments so letten, or any Parcel thereof, for any Condition, Covenant or Agreement contained or expressed in the Indentures of their Lease and Leases, as the same Lessees, or any of them might and should have had against the said Lessors and Grantors, their Heirs and Successors; all Benefits and Advantages of Recoveries in Value by Reason of any Warranty in Deed or in Law by Voucher or otherwise only excepted. 5 Co. 16. No. 14. III. Provided always, That this Act, nor any Thing or Things therein contained, shall extend to hinder or charge any Person or 32 H. VIII. e. 34. Persons for the Breach of any Covenant or Condition comprised in any such Writing, as is aforesaid, but for such Covenants and Conditions as shall be broken or not performed, after the first Day of September next coming, and not before; any Thing before in this Act contained to the contrary thereof notwithstanding. (1) (1) The following Exposition of this Act is given by Sir Edward Coke, 1 Inst. 215. "Upon this Act divers Resolutions and Judgements have been given, which are necessary to be known. 1. That the said Statute is general, viz. That the Grantee of the Reversion of every common Person, as well as of the King, shall take Advantage of Conditions. 2. That the Statute doth extend to Grants made by the Successors of the King, albeit the King be only named in the Act. 3. That where the Statute speaketh of Lessees, that the same doth not extend to Gifts in Tail. 4. That where the Statute speaks of Grantees and Assignees of the Reversion, that an Assignee of Part of the State of Reversion may take Advantage of the Condition. As if Lessee for Life be, &c. and the Reversion is granted for Life, &c. So if Lessee for Years, &c. be, and the Reversion is granted for Years, the Grantee for Years shall take Benefit of the Condition in Respect of this Word Executors in the Act. 5. That a Grantee of Part of the Reversion shall not take Advantage of the Condition; as if the Lease be of three Acres, reserving a Rent upon Condition, and the Reversion is granted of two Acres, the Rent shall be apportioned by the Act of the Parties, but the Condition is destroyed, for that it is entire and against common Right. 6. That in the King's Case, the Condition in that Case is not destroyed, but remains still in the King. 7. By Act in Law a Condition may be apportioned in the Case of a common Person; as if a Lease for Years be made of two Acres, one of the Nature of Borough English, the other at the Common Law, and the Lesser having Issue two Sons, dieth, each of them shall enter for the Condition broken, and likewise a Condition shall be apportioned by the Act and Wrong of the Lessee, as hath been said in the Chapter of Rents. 8. If a Lease for Life be made, reserving a Rent upon Condition, &c. the Lessor levies a Fine of the Reversion, he is Grantee or Assignee of the Reversion, but without Attournment, he shall not take Advantage of the Condition, for the Makers of the Statute intended to have all necessary Incidents observed, otherwise it might be mischievous to the Lessee.* Co. Lit. 215. • Attournmeut 9 There is a Diversity between a Condition that is compulsory, and a is taken away per Power of Revocation that is voluntary; for a Man that hath a Power of 4 & 5 Aune, c. 16. Revocation, may by his own Act extinguish his Power of Revocation in Part, as by levying of a Fine of Part; and yet the Power shall remain for the Residue, because it is in the Nature of a Limitation, and not of a Condition; and so it was resolved in the Earl of Shrewsbury's Case in the Court of Wards. Pasch. 39. Eliz. and Mich. 40 and 41, Eliz. 10. If the Lessor bargain and sell the Reversion by Deed indented and inrolled, the Bargainee is not in the per by the Bargainor, and yet he is an Assignee within the Statute. So if the Lessor grants the Reversion in Fee to the Use of A and his Heirs, A is a sufficient Assignee within the Statute, because he comes in by the Act and Limitation of the Party, albeit he is in the Post, and the Words of the Statute be, to or by, and they be Assignees to him, although they be not by him; but such as come in merely by Act in Law, as the Lord of the Villiene, the Lord by Escheat, the Lord that entreth or claimeth by Mortmain, or the like, shall not take Benefit of this Statute. 11. If the Lessor in the Case before, bargain and sell the Reversion by Deed indented and inrolled, or if the Lessor make a Feoffment in Fee, and the Lessee re-enter, the Grantee or Feoffee shall not take any Advantage of any Condition without making Notice to the Lessee. No. 14. 12. Albeit the whole Words of the Statute be for Non-payment of the 32 H. VIII. c. 31. Rent, or for doing of Waste or other Forfeiture, yet the Grantees or Assignees shall not take Benefit of every Forfeiture by Force of a Condition, but only of such Conditions as either are incident to the Reversion, as Rent, or for the Benefit of the State, as for not doing of Waste, for keeping the Houses in Reparations, for making of Fences, scouring of Ditches, for preserving of Woods, or such like, and not for the Payment of any Sum in Gross, delivery of Corn, Wood, or the Like so as other Forfeiture, shall be taken for other Forfeitures like to thoee Examples which were there put (viz.) of Payment of Rent, and not doing of Waste which are for the Benefit of the Reversion." And see Note ibid. in the late Editions of Co. Lit. from Lord Nottinghams's MSS. The Statute only gives a Remedy for and against Persons who by Assignment become entitled to the Reversion-the Liability of the Assignee of the Term, and his Right to maintain an Action of Covenant against the Lessor and his Heirs, is at Common Law. Such an Action can only be maintained against the Assignee of the entire legal Interest of the Whole or Part of the Premises demised-therefore it cannot be maintained against the Grantee of a Lessee for Lives for 99 Years, if the Lives should so long live in as full and ample a Manner as the Lessee held.Earl of Derby v. Taylor, 1 East 502. In Eaton v. Jacques, Doug. 454, it was held that a Mortgagee by Assignment of the whole Leasehold Interest, who had not taken Possession, was not liable in Covenant, but this is very much questioned by Lord Kenyon, in Westerdell v. Daie, 7 Term Rep. 312, and Stone v. Evans, at N. P. cited 7 East 341. In Walker v. Reeves, Doug. 461, an Averment that the Assignee continued in Possession was holden insufficient as a Replication to a Plea that he had assigned it over to another; but that Case was decided by the same Judges, as Eaton and Jacques, and distinguished from it on the Ground of the latter being a Mortgage. Assignees under a Commission of Bankrupt, having taken the Property, as such are chargeable in Covenant, and having once accepted the Property, they cannot afterwards reject it. But the merely offering it to Sale is not such an Assumption of the Property as to charge them with the Covenants. Turner v. Richardson, 7 East 335, and Browne v. Robinson, there cited. An Executor or Administrator upon whom a Term devolves, is answerable de bonis propriis, as an Assignee, Tilney v. Norris, 1 Salk. 309. Covenant will lie against an Assignee of Part of the Estate, Cougham v. King, Cro. Car. 222. Stevenson v. Lambard, 2 East 575, and in such an Action there may be an Apportionment of Rent, although there cannot in the Case of the immediate Lessee. It is settled that an Assignee can only be charged for Breaches incurred during his having the Estate in the Premises, and that such Liability is divested by an Assignment to a Beggar, or a Person leaving the Kingdom, or who does not take actual Possession, or to a Feme Covert whose Husband does not assent, or a Prisoner for Debt. Pitcher v. Tovey, 1 Salk. 81. Bamfather v. Jordan, Doug. 425. Lekeux v. Nash, 2 Str. 1291. TayJor v. Sturm, 1 Bos. and Pull. 21. And Notice of such Assignment is not necessary. Pitcher v. Tovey, ub. supra. It is also settled that a Lessee continues liable notwithstanding any Assignment, and such Lessee cannot plead his Bankruptcy in Bar. Auriol v. Mills, 4 T. R. 94, except by Virtue of 49 Geo. III. c. 121. which releases the Bankrupt in Case the Assignees accept the Lease and the Benefit therefrom as a Part of the Estate. It is agreed that the Statute relates only to Assignees of a Reversion expectant upon Leases for Life or Years, and not to the Assignees of Grantees in Fee or Tail ;-and it is also evident that none of the Expressions in the Statute give a Right of Action to the second Assignee of a Term against the first Assignor. And the Recital of the Statute, that by the Common Law no Stranger to any Covenant shall take any Benefit or Advantage of the same, but only such as be Parties or Privies thereunto, with the Necessity for such an Enactment as constitutes the general Purview of the Statute, would seem to shew, that where there is no Reversion, the Assignee of a Purchaser of an Estate would have no Remedy on the Covenants of the original Grantor, for between such Grantor and the Assignee there does not appear to be any actual Privity. |