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to his lessee for life that he should be discharged from the rent, this was held to amount to a release. Littleton says, a release of all demands is the best $ 508. and strongest release. And Lord Coke observes, that 1 Inst. 291. be the word demand is the strongest word in the law, except the word claim; that a release of all demands discharges all sorts of actions, rights, and titles, conditions before and after breach, executions, appeals, rents of all kinds, covenants, contracts, recognisances, statutes, &c.

enure.

21. Releases of land, in respect to their operation, How releases are divided into four sorts. 1. Releases that enure by way of mitter l'estate. II. Releases that enure by way of mitter le droit. III. Releases that enure by way of enlargement; and, IV. Releases that enure by way of extinguishment.

22. When two or more persons become seised of the same estate by a joint title, either by contract or descent, as joint tenants or coparceners, and one of them releases his right to the other, such release is said to enure by way of mitter l'estate. For where two several persons come in by the same feudal contract, one of them may discharge to the other, the benefit of such contract, by a release; because no notoriety is needful, for there was a sufficient notoriety in the prior feudal contract. Thus two coparceners come into one entire feud, descending from their ancestor; they may therefore release privately to each other, because they take by the former descent, which established them in possession without notoriety. But since coparceners do also transmit distinct estates to their children, they may pass their estates by distinct feoffments.

Mitter l'estate.
Lit. § 304.

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Inst. 273. b. Gilb. Ten, 72.

23. As to joint tenants, they can only pass their G.lb.. estates to one another by release; for they all come in by the first feudal contract, and therefore a second feoffment cannot give any further title, or notoriety; because every person is supposed to be in by his

1 Inst. 273. b.

Tit. 20.

Mitter le droit.
Lit. § 466.

elder title; which in the case of joint tenants is the original feoffment; so that a second feoffment would be useless.

24. In consequence of the privity which must necessarily exist in releases that enure by way of mitter l'estate, a fee will pass by such a release, without any words of limitation. For the parties are not in by the release, but by the original feudal contract, which passed an inheritance; and the release only discharges the pretensions of one of them to the other. So that where one joint tenant or coparcener releases to the other, the releasee is in by the original conveyance; and such release is not considered as an alienation.

25. One tenant in common cannot release to his companion, because they have distinct freeholds; but they must pass their estates by feoffment. For as they were created by different acts, and different liveries, they must also pass to each other by distinct liveries.

26. Releases are said to enure by way of mitter le Gilb. Ten, 55. droit, where a person who has been disseised, releases to the disseisor, or to his heir or feoffee, who, being in possession, is therefore capable of taking a release of the right. And as in cases of this kind nothing but the bare right passes, the release is said to enure by way of mitter le droit, that is, transferring the right.

Lit. § 467.

Enlargement of

estate.

Lit. § 465.

1. Inst. 272. 6.

27. No words of limitation are necessary in a release of this kind: for if a release of right be made to a person seised in fee, for a day or an hour, it will be as strong as if it were made to the releasee and his heirs for ever.

28. Releases enure by way of enlargement of estate, when the possession and inheritance are separated for particular time, and he who has the reversion and inheritance releases all his right and interest in the lands to the person who has the particular estate. Such releases are said to enure by way of enlarge

ment of estate, and to amount to a grant and attornment; because they transfer the legal estate to the releasee as effectually as a feoffment with livery. But to render this kind of release good, it is necessary that there should be a privity of estate between the releasor and the releasee; and also that the releasee should have such an estate as is capable of being enlarged.

273. a.

29. With respect to privity of estate, if a person 1 Inst. 270. a. makes a lease for years, the lessee is of course capable of taking a release from the lessor, because there is a privity between them. But, in this case, the lessee Tit. 8. c. 1. must have entered on the lands before the execution of the release; for till entry he has only an interesse termini, which is not capable of being enlarged. If, how 1 Inst. 270. d. ever, a man makes a lease for life, remainder for life, and the first lessee dies, a release to him in remainder is good, before he enters, to enlarge his estate.

30. If A. makes a lease to B. for life, and the lessee 1 Inst. 273. a makes a lease for years, and afterwards A. releases

to the lessee for years; it will not enlarge his estate,
because there is no privity between A. and the lessee
for years.
So if a person makes a lease for twenty
years, and the lessee makes a lease for ten years, if
the first lessor releases to the second lessee, his release
will be void, for want of privity of estate.

1 Inst. 270. b.

1 Inst. 271. a.

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31. A release to a tenant at will operates so as to Lit. 6 460. enlarge his estate, because there is a privity between him and the lessor. But a release to a tenant at sufferance is void, for want of privity. A release to a Lit. § 462, &c, cestui que use by the feoffees to uses, was sufficient to enlarge his estate; because the cestui que use was tenant at will to the feoffees, and there was a privity between them. From which it may be concluded that a release to a cestui que trust, by the trustee, would now operate to enlarge the estate. A release to a 1 Inst. 270. č. person having an estate by statute merchant, statute staple, or elegit, will operate to enlarge their estates.

Tit. 14.

1 Inst. 273. b.

1 Inst. 270.a. n. 3.

Lit. § 465.

Extinguish

ment.

1 Inst. 270. a.

Ante,. 29.

$470.

32. If a feme covert be tenant for life, a release to her husband will be good; because there is both privity, and an estate in the husband, whereupon the release may enure: for by the marriage, the husband acquired a freehold estate in right of his wife.

33. Lord Coke says, a release which enures by way of enlargement, cannot operate without a possession. This must be understood to mean, not that an actual possession is necessary, but that the releasee has an estate actually vested in him at the time of the release, which is capable of being enlarged by such release. Thus, if a tenant for twenty years makes a lease to B. for five years, and B. enters, a release to the first lessee is good, for the possession of his lessee was his possession. So if a man makes a lease for years, remainder for years, and the first lessee enters, a release to the person in remainder for years, is good to enlarge his estate. 34. Releases which operate by enlargement of estate, require the same technical words of limitation as feoffments or grants. Thus, if a lessor releases to his lessee for years all his right in the lands, this will only pass an estate for life.

35. In some cases where the release cannot enure by way of mitter le droit, it will operate by way of extinguishment. Thus, if a lord releases his seigniory to the tenant, or if a person having a rent or common, releases it to the terre-tenant, these releases are said to operate by way of extinguishment; because the tenant cannot have services or rent to receive of himself, nor can he take common in his own land.

36. If a lease for years be made to commence presently, reserving rent; and before the lessee enters, the lessor releases to him all his right in the land; though this cannot enure to enlarge his estate, yet it will operate as an extinguishment of the rent.

37. Littleton says, if a tenant for life lets the land over to another, for term of the life of the lessee, re

mainder over to another in fee, and the lessor, or owner of the inheritance, releases to the person to whom the tenant made the lease, he will be thereby for ever barred, though no mention is made of his heirs; for at the time of the release the lessor had no reversion, but only a right to have the reversion. Lord Coke, in his comment on this passage, observes, that the release to the lessee does not enure by way of mitter le droit, for then should he have the whole right; but by way of extinguishment, in respect of him who made the release; and that it shall enure to him in remainder.

released.

10 Rep. 46.

38. Not only estates in land, but all interests, What may be rights, and profits, arising out of, or annexed to, land, may be released. It is however a rule of law, that no Lampet's case, possibility, right, title, or thing in action, shall be granted or released to a stranger, for that would be the occasion of multiplying suits. Thus, Lord C. B. Ten. 53. Gilbert says, "A release of all a man's right supposeth that he has a right, for he cannot transfer a right which he has not; if he has nothing, nothing can pass by the conveyance, and it countenanced maintenance to transfer possibilities." Hence a son cannot release to his father's disseisor, in the lifetime of his father, because he has no right to the land then. And in such a case the son might enter on the land 1 Inst. 265. a. against his own release.

39. All rights, titles and actions, may however be 10 Rep. 48. a. released to the terre-tenant, for securing his

repose

and quiet, and for avoiding suits. Therefore a right
or title to an estate of freehold, in præsenti or futuro,
may be released in five ways. I. To the tenant of
the freehold in fact, or in law, without any privity.
III. To the person

II. To the person in remainder.
entitled to the reversion, without any privity. IV. To
the person who has a right only in respect of privity:
as if the tenant be disseised, the lord may release his
services, in respect of the privity and right, without

& b.

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