Landlord and tenant.

Acts of the tenant.

Cannot dispute

The last special relation we notice is that of landlord and tenant.

A termor has a duty to preserve the interest of his landlord, and many acts, therefore, may be done by a person claiming in the character of a termor for years, which, if done by persons standing in other relations, would be acts to be denominated acts of adverse possession; but the law, when it imposes upon a man the duty to abstain from doing those acts, will not permit him to say they are acts of adverse possession, having the effect of acts of adverse possession (r).

It is a rule which has been established for centuries

landlord's title. that a tenant is not permitted to dispute his landlord's title to confer possession at the time of the demise, although he may certainly show that the title determined afterwards (s).

Tenant's pos

landlord.

If, however, a person seised in fee were induced, by fraud, to take, or take by mistake, a lease of the property, a court of equity might control the setting up that lease in a case of fraud it certainly might, in a case of mere ignorance there might be great difficulty in holding that a court of equity could interfere (t).

The possession of the tenant during the term is the session that of possession of the landlord, and the former cannot be allowed to deal with the possession so as to deprive the latter of his right. If this distinction were not exactly observed, property would be thrown into confusion, especially in cases of long terms, where no rent is reserved to keep up the memory of the tenure (u). The tenant's possession, even when abusing his right or exercising it to an extent not authorized by his tenure, is still the landlord's possession, and the abuse can never give the tenant a right against his landlord (r).

(r) 4 Bl. 96. See also Att.Gen. v. Fullerton, 2 Ves. & B. 263.

(8) Per Best, C. J., Alchorne v. Gomme, 2 Bing. 54; Downs v.

Cooper, 1 G. & D. 573.

(t) 2 Sch. & Lef. 101.
(u) Ib. 98.

(x) Lord Courtown v. Ward, 1 Sch. & Lef. 8; 2 G. & D. 189.

But if the tenant, with the knowledge of his landlord, Tenant betraybetray the possession to a third person, who does not ing possession to a stranger. claim the estate of the tenant, and the landlord make no attempt to recover the possession, the relation of landlord and tenant between the landlord and such third person will not be created (y); for the landlord having notice of, and submitting to, an adverse title, and taking no steps to oppose it, has no right afterwards to affect the title of a third person (z).

The landlord has no right of entry pending the lease, and he is not bound until the expiration of the term to take advantage of any forfeiture of the lease and reenter for a condition broken (a). And if the tenant levied a fine, the landlord, on the expiration of the term, might bring ejectment without making any entry to avoid the fine (b).

Right of landlord during

lease.

this relation.

In this relation, however, as we have already noticed, Alterations in alterations of great importance, which in effect, in certain cases, determine the relation, have been introduced by the 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 27 (c).

available.

Where a lease is granted by a charitable corporation (d), For whom the or by the trustees of lands for a charity (e), of parts of the relation not charity property, the attorney-general, in a suit by him on behalf of the charities to set aside the leases, cannot set up this relation in answer to a plea of the statute 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 27, in bar of such a suit.

(y) Hovenden v. Lord Annesley, 2 Sch. & Lef. 625; 2 Ball & B. 273.

(z) 2 Ball & B. 273.

(a) Doe d. Cook v. Danvers, 7 East, 319; 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 27, s. 4; 9 H. L. C. 381.

(b) 1 East, 575.

(c) Vide ante, pp. 106, 107.
(d) Att.-Gen. v. Payne, 27
Beav. 168.

(e) Att.-Gen. v. Davey, 4 De
Gex, J. & F. 136.

Certain corporations as to

as an inherit

ance,

SECTION IV.

Persons not affected by these Laws.

Corporations sole, both spiritual and eleemosynary, as respects tithes, moduses and compositions as an in-tithes, &c., heritance, and distinguished from them as chattels, are still, as formerly (ƒ), exempt from the operation of the Statutes of Limitation. For the 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 100, extends to such corporations as respects only claims of exemption or discharge from the payment or render of tithes, moduses or compositions as chattels, and not as respects claims to an estate in them, as between adverse claimants (g); and such corporations, when the tithes, moduses or compositions belong to them as an inheritance, are exempted from the 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 27 (h), and are still within the old maxim, nullum tempus occurrit ecclesiæ (i); and notwithstanding the commutation of the tithes, those corporations are, in relation to the rent charge for such commutation, in the same position as before the commutation they were in, in relation to the tithes themselves (k).

-light, 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 71.

A parson or vicar, for the benefit of the church and his successor, is, in some cases, esteemed in law to have a fee simple qualified; but to do anything to the prejudice of his successor in many cases the law adjudgeth him to have in effect but an estate for life (1), and generally the successor is not bound by the laches or negligence of the predecessor (m). Therefore corporations sole, either spiritual or eleemosynary, and who are not seised in fee, although as respects each individual

(f) Quilter v. Mussendine, Gilb. Rep. 228.

(g) Dean and Chapter of Ely v. Cash, 15 Mee. & W. 617, S. C.; sub nom. Dean and Chapter of Ely v. Bliss, 2 De Gex, M. & G. 259.

(h) See that stat. sect. 1.

(i) 2 De Gex, M. & G. 471.

(k) 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 71, s. 71. See Clarke v. Yonge, 5 Beav. 523.

(1) Co. Litt. 341 a.

(m) Plowd. 375, 538; 11 Co. 71 a.

they may be within the 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 71, s. 3, yet, as respects their successors, they are not, it is apprehended, affected by that provision of the statute. For in the sect. 7, excluding from computation of the period fixed by such provision, the period during which any person is tenant for life, the term person alone is used, and generally that term does not embrace such corporations (n), and being expressly mentioned in the sections 1 and 2, and not being mentioned in the section 3, are not within the latter section. Expressio unius exclusio alterius (o), and the assignee of such a corporation under the powers of the 55 Geo. 3, c. 147, would not be affected by such provision, for he would be entitled to all the rights belonging to the land of such corporation at the time of the acquisition thereof by him (p).

CHAPTER III.

THINGS TO WHICH THESE LAWS ARE, AND THINGS TO
WHICH THEY ARE NOT, APPLICABLE.

the Crown.

SECTION I.

Things belonging to the Crown and to the Duke of
Cornwall.

Possessions of ALL lands and tenements which the sovereign has belong to him jure coronæ, and are called sacra patrimonia, or dominica corona (a); and all the lands and possessions whereof the sovereign is seised in jure coronæ shall, secundum jus coronæ, attend upon and follow the Crown, and therefore to whomsoever the Crown descends, those lands and possessions descend also, for the Crown and the lands whereof the sovereign is seised in jure coronæ are concomitantia (b).

What they include.

caster.

These possessions include all those acquired by the sovereign in his private capacity, before (c) or after(d) the descent of the Crown to him, either by purchase or Duchy of Lan- by descent, as the duchy of Lancaster (e), or given to, or vested in him, his heirs and successors, by statute, without saying as parcel of his Crown, or to such effect; for the word successors declares that the lands are annexed to the Crown, and shall go in succession, and that he shall have them as sovereign (ƒ).

(a) Co. Litt. 1 b.

(b) Co. Litt. 15 b; Plowd. 213,

244, 245, 246, 247.

(c) Skin. 603; Plowd. 213.

(d) Co. Litt. 16 a; Alcock & Nap. Ir. Rep. 548.

(e) Plowd. 214, 238.

(f) Plowd. 105; supra, p. 240.