Whitney v. Carle
Whitney v. Carle
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The first avowry was insufficient, because it did not show the facts which authorized the issuing of the distress warrant for rent. The Court, therefore, did not err in arresting the judgment on the verdict found for the defendant. Whether, if the first avowry had been good, the defendant, after amending it upon leave, could rely upon it in this Court, we need not decide.
The case, therefore, depends upon the propriety of overruling the defendant’s demurrer to the second plea to his last amended avowry. That avowry, without stating the title of the defendant in the premises, stated a demise from her to the plaintiff, ending on the day when the distress warrant issued and the distress was made, when, as it avers, two quarters’ rent was due, for which the distress was made. The second plea states merely that the distress in the avowry mentioned, was made after the defendant’s title and interest had ceased. The plea cannot be regarded as denying the demise as averred in the avowry, or its continuance to the time of the distress. It shows no eviction of the tenant, nor any other fact which could operate as a determination of the tenancy before the lease expired by its own limitation. Upon the avowry and plea, therefore, it must be taken that the lease and the relation of landlord and tenant still subsisted when the distress was made. In this state of case, we apprehend, it was not material whether the lessor had any other title than that implied in the lease and in the relation of landlord and tenant, or that if material, the plaintiff was estopped by the lease and his continued occupation under it, from denying the continuance of the landlord’s title, at any rate without showing how it had determined.
This Court, in the case of Mitchell vs Franklin, (3 J. J. Marshall, 480-1,) has said emphatically, that if the relation of landlord and tenant exists, and a rent in money has been reserved out of the lands, and the rent is due, the remedy by, distress is proper, but subject to the provisions of the acts of 1811 and 1748, when they apply. We concur fully in this conclusion, and being satisfied that the twelfth section of the act of 1748 applies only to such distress as is given by the act, we are of opinion that the plea founded upon that section does not apply to the present case.
The avowry then shows a right of distress independent of the statute of 1748, and is good without setting
Wherefore, for the error of overruling the defendant’s demurrer to the second plea to the avowry, the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded with directions to sustain said demurrer, and for further proceedings.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.