A Lease was made to A and B for 60 years, with a clause of re-entry immediately after the deaths of A and B and of the longer liver of them within the term. After the death of A within the term another lease of the same lands was made to C habendum et occupandum, when the former lease shall determine, after, or by the death, surrender or forfeiture, of the said B.
Held: the second lease shall commence either after the re-entry by force of the proviso, if any be, and if none, then after the determination and end of the first term by any of the other means.
That every lease for years should have a certain beginning, is to be intended when it is to take effect in interest or possession.
That the continuance of a lease for years ought to be certain, is to be intended either when the term is certain by express numbering of years, or by reference to certainty, or by reducing it to certainty by matter ex post facto, or by construction of law by express limitation.
When a lease for years shall be made good by reference, the reference ought to be to a thing which has express certainty at the time of the lease made, and not to a possible or casual certainty.
A demise for the term of one year, and so from one year for a year, as long as both parties shall please, is but a lease for three years at most. If a lease be made for years, it is a good lease for two years.
A void limitation of the commencement of a lease for years, and no limitation, is all one.
In construction of law on the commencement of leases, the construction shall be the strongest against the lessor, and most beneficially for the lessee. If a man makes a lease for years, to commence after the surrender, forfeiture, determination, or end, of a former lease, the lessee shall not have election, but whichever event shall first happen, on the happening of it the second lease, which before consisted in interesse termini, shall begin in possession.
Citations:
[1572] EngR 386, (1572-1616) 6 Co Rep 34, (1572) 77 ER 303
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Cited – Berrisford v Mexfield Housing Co-Operative Ltd SC 9-Nov-2011
The tenant appealed against an order granting possession. The tenancy, being held of a mutual housing co-operative did not have security but was in a form restricting the landlord’s right to recover possession, and the tenant resisted saying that it . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Landlord and Tenant
Updated: 02 May 2022; Ref: scu.432352
