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SELECT CASES

AND OTHER

AUTHORITIES ON THE LAW OF PROPERTY.

BOOK I.

DISTINCTION BETWEEN REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY.

BRACTON, Lib. 2, c. 9, fol. 27 a. If a gift be made for a term of years, although a very long one, which exceeds the lives of men, yet the donor will not have a freehold from it, since a term of years is certain and determined, and the term of life uncertain, and because although nothing is more certain than death, yet nothing is more uncertain than the hour of death.

BRACTON, Lib. 4, c. 36, fol. 220 a. Now we must speak of the case when any one is ejected from the usufruct [de usufructu vel usu et habitatione] of any tenement which he holds for a term of years before the end of the term. For in one and the same tenement one may have the freehold, and another the usufruct [usumfructum et usum et habitationem]. Some are accustomed when they have been ejected during their term to seek their remedy by a writ of covenant. But because such writ had no place between any persons except only between the lessor and lessee, nor can the obligation of the covenant bind other persons, and because even between the lessor and lessee the affair could be determined hardly at all or only with difficulty, by the advice of the court provision was made for the lessee against ejectors of every kind by a writ like this. "The king to the sheriff greeting: Command A that he duly and without delay restore to B so much land with the appurtenances in such a vill, which the said A, who demised," &c. Or thus: "If such-a-one [A] gives you security, &c., [summon B] to show cause why he deforces such-a-one [A] from so much land with the appurtenances in such a vill which so-and-so [C] demised to the said such-a-one [A] for a term which has not yet expired, within which term the said so-and-so [C] has sold it to such-a-one [B], by reason of which sale the said such-a-one [B] afterwards ejected such-a-one [A] from the said land, as he says, and have there, &c. Witness," &c.

And if such a writ is available against a stranger on account of a sale, much more is it available against the lord himself who has demised and ejected without cause, than against a stranger who had some kind of reason, if because of the sale made to him the seller [qu. purchaser] has ejected the lessee, or otherwise if some one other than he who demised, has ejected; and then in this fashion: "Which C. of N. demised to him for a term which has not yet passed, within which term the said A or the said C has wrongfully ejected the said B from the said land (or his farm [firma]) as he says, and unless he does so, and the said B gives you security, then summon," &c. . . . No more can any one eject a lessee from his farm, than any tenant from his freehold. And if the lessor is the ejector, he shall restore the seisin with damages, because such a restitution [qu. ejectment] does not differ much from a disseisin. But if some one other than the lessor is the ejector, if he has done it with the authority and will of the lessor, both shall be held by the judg ment, one on account of the act, and the other on account of having given the authority. But if it was without the will [of the lessor], then the ejector is held both to the lord of the property and to the lessee, to the lessee by the writ aforesaid, and to the lord of the property by an assise of novel disseisin, that the one may have again his term with damages, and the other his freehold without damages.1

LIT. § 740. But where such lease or grant is made to a man and to his heires for terme of yeares, in this case the heire of the lessee or the grantee shall not after the death of the lessee or the grantee have that which is so let or granted, because it is a chattel reall, and chattels realls by the common law shall come to the executors of the grantee, or of the lessee, and not to the heire.

Co. LIT. 388 a. Here is a generall rule, that chattels reals as well as chattels personals shall goe to the executors or administrators of the lessee, and not to his heires. For as estates of inheritance or freehold descendible shall go to the heire, so chattels, as wel reall as personall, shall goe to the executors or administrators.

2 BL. COM. 21. Incorporeal hereditaments are principally of ten sorts; advowsons, tithes, commons, ways, offices, dignities, franchises, corodies or pensions, annuities, and rents.

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By letters patent under the great seal of England, dated July 19, 24 Car. II., as well in consideration of the surrender by the Earl of 1 See Digby, Hist. Real Prop. c. 3, sect. 2, § 17 (in 1st ed. § 16).

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