3 & 4 W. 4, extend to manors, messuages, and all other corporeal here c. 27. "Rent." ditaments whatsoever, and also to tithes (other than tithes belonging to a spiritual or eleemosynary corporation sole), and also to any share, estate, or interest in them or any of them, whether the same shall be a freehold or chattel interest, and whether freehold or copyhold, or held according to any other tenure; and the word "rent" shall extend to all heriots, and to all services and suits for which a distress may be made, and to all annuities and periodical sums of money charged upon or payable out of any land (except moduses or compositions belonging to a spiritual or eleemosynary corporation sole); and the person through whom anthrough other person is said to claim, shall mean any person by, other claims. through, or under, or by the act of whom, the person so Person whom an claiming became entitled to the estate or interest claimed, as heir, issue in tail, tenant by the curtesy of England, tenant in dower, successor, special or general occupant, executor, administrator, legatee, husband, assignee, appointee, devisee, or otherwise, and also any person who was entitled to an estate or interest to which the person so claiming, or some person through whom he claims, became entitled as "Person." lord by escheat; and the word "person" shall extend to a No land or rent to be recovered body politic, corporate, or collegiate, and to a class of creNumberand ditors or other persons, as well as an individual; and every gender. word importing the singular number only, shall extend and be applied to several persons or things as well as one person or thing; and every word importing the masculine gender only, shall extend and be applied to a female as well as a male. II. And be it further enacted, That, after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirtybut within three, no person shall make an entry or distress, or bring an action to recover any land or rent, but within twenty years right of ac- next after the time at which the right to make such entry or distress, or to bring such action, shall have first accrued to some person through whom he claims; or, if such right shall not have accrued to any person through whom he claims, then within twenty years next after the time at which the right to make such entry or distress, or to bring such action, shall have first accrued to the person making or bringing the same. 20 years after the tion accru ed. c. 27. have accru of estate in session; ment or III. And be it further enacted, That, in the construction 3 & 4 W. 4, of this act, the right to make an entry or distress, or bring When right an action to recover any land or rent, shall be deemed to deemed to have first accrued at such time as hereinafter is mentioned; ed; (that is to say,) when the person claiming such land or rent, in the case or some person through whom he claims, shall, in respect of possession; the estate or interest claimed, have been in possession or in receipt of the profits of such land, or in receipt of such rent, and shall, while entitled thereto, have been dispossessed, or on disposhave discontinued such possession or receipt, then such right shall be deemed to have first accrued at the time of such dispossession or discontinuance of possession, or at the last time at which any such profits or rent were or was so received; and when the person claiming such land or rent, on abateshall claim the estate or interest of some deceased person death; who shall have continued in such possession or receipt, in respect of the same estate or interest, until the time of his death, and shall have been the last person entitled to such estate or interest who shall have been in such possession or receipt, then such right shall be deemed to have first accrued at the time of such death; and when the person on alienaclaiming such land or rent shall claim in respect of an estate or interest in possession, granted, appointed, or otherwise assured by any instrument (other than a will) to him, or some person through whom he claims, by a person being in respect of the same estate or interest in the possession or receipt of the profits of the land, or in the receipt of the rent, and no person entitled under such instrument shall have been in such possession or receipt, then such right shall be deemed to have first accrued at the time at which the person claiming as aforesaid, or the person through whom he claims, became entitled to such possession or receipt by virtue of such instrument; and, when the estate or in case of interest claimed shall have been an estate or interest in reversion or remainder, or other future estate or interest, and no person shall have obtained the possession or receipt of the profits of such land, or the receipt of such rent in respect of such estate or interest, then such right shall be deemed to have first accrued at the time at which such estate or interest became an estate or interest in possession; tion; future es tates; 3 & 4 W. 4, and when the person claiming such land or rent, or the c. 27. in case of per son through whom he claims, shall have become entitled by forfeiture or reason of any forfeiture or breach of condition, then such right shall be deemed to have first accrued when such forfeiture was incurred or such condition was broken. (b) condition. (b) The enactments of this section remove one of the greatest sources of difficulty in the investigation of title. In considering whether an estate or a right had been acquired by length of time, or would have been presumed to be so acquired, great difficulty frequently arose in ascertaining whether the possession was adverse, and, if so, when it began to be adverse, because, until the possession became adverse, no right could be acquired by length of time under the statutes of limitation, nor any foundation laid for applying the doctrines of presumption. Whether possession was or was not adverse was a question of fact to be determined by a jury, and therefore in its very nature involving great uncertainty: but, besides this, the question was frequently entangled by certain rules of law, which still further added to the embarrassment and difficulty of it. One of these rules was, that a possession which began rightfully could not be considered as having become wrongful, that is, adverse as against the rightful owner, by being merely continued after the right of the party in possession had determined. It was also a principle, that, in case of a lease, adverse possession, so as to bar the reversioner, did not commence till the expiration of the term. The commissioners, in their first report on the law of Real Property, p. 47, observe, that, "where rent is reserved on a lease, we consider it more reasonable that the limitation should run from the time when the rent began to be received by a person claiming adversely, so that there shall not be a new period of limitation from the expiration of the lease. The receipt of rents and profits is equivalent to the occupation of the soil; the person who is in the receipt of them can do nothing more to establish his right, and the person to whom they are denied is virtually dispossessed. Where no rent, or only a nominal rent, is reserved, very slight negligence can be imputed to the reversioner, in merely not requiring a recognition of his title from the tenant, and in such cases, till the expiration of the lease, we think there should not be a commencement of adverse possession to bar the landlord. Any rent less than twenty shillings a year may for this purpose be considered nominal (Sect. 9). "The anomaly, that, when the younger brother or other remote heir enters on the death of the ancestor, his possession is not adverse to the title of the elder brother, appears to lead to uncertainty, and may be usefully abolished. (Sect. 13.) "It would be desirable to permit a jury, under certain circumstances, to find the fact of adverse possession in the cases of tenants in common, joint tenants, and coparceners, without proof of actual ouster (Sect. 12, which appears to go beyond this recommendation.) "We likewise think it would be proper to enact, that, where one individual has several estates in the same land, when his right of entry is barred as to one estate it shall be barred as to all; at present he and those claiming under him have a period of twenty years on the vesting in possession of such estate. (Sect. 20.) any c. 27. Where ad vantage of forfeiture is not taken by IV. Provided always, That, when any right to make an 3 & 4 W. 4, entry or distress or to bring an action to recover any land or rent by reason of any forfeiture or breach of condition shall have first accrued in respect of estate or interest in reversion or remainder, and the land or rent shall not have remainderbeen recovered by virtue of such right, the right to make man, he an entry or distress, or bring an action to recover such land new right or rent, shall be deemed to have first accrued in respect of such estate or interest at the time when the same shall have into possesbecome an estate or interest in possession, as if no such forfeiture or breach of condition had happened. shall have a when his estate comes sion. to have a new right. V. Provided also, That a right to make an entry or dis- Reversioner tress, or to bring an action to recover any land or rent, shall be deemed to have first accrued, in respect of an estate or interest in reversion, at the time at which the same shall have become an estate or interest in possession by the determination of any estate or estates in respect of which such land shall have been held, or the profits thereof, or such rent shall have been received, notwithstanding the person claiming such land, or some person through whom he claims, shall, at any time previously to the creation of the estate or estates which shall have determined, have been in possession or receipt of the profits of such land, or in receipt of such rent. trator to the estate VI. And be it further enacted, That, for the purposes of An administhis act, an administrator claiming the estate or interest of claim as if the deceased person of whose chattels he shall be appoint- he obtained ed administrator, shall be deemed to claim as if there had without inbeen no interval of time between the death of such deceased terval after person and the grant of the letters of administration (c). (c) In case of intestacy, it had been decided, that, as to all rights accruing after the death of the intestate, the statutes of limitation only began to run from the grant of administration. Hence, a right to a chattel interest in lands might be kept alive notwithstanding adverse possession to the expiration of the term however long. From this rule, serious practical inconvenience frequently arose. The rule established in the text, that, as to death of deceased. 3 & 4 W. 4, c. 27. In the case VII. And be it further enacted, That, when any person shall be in possession or in receipt of the profits of any land, of a tenant or in receipt of any rent, as tenant at will, the right of the at will, the right shall person entitled subject thereto, or of the person through be deemed whom he claims, to make an entry or distress, or bring an to have ac year. crued at the action to recover such land or rent, shall be deemed to have end of one first accrued either at the determination of such tenancy, or at the expiration of one year next after the commencement of such tenancy, at which time such tenancy shall be deemed to have determined: Provided always, that no mortgagor or cestui que trust shall be deemed to be a tenant at will, within the meaning of this clause, to his mortgagee or trustee. No person nancy from VIII. And be it further enacted, That, when any person after a te shall be in possession or in receipt of the profits of any land, year to year, or in receipt of any rent, as tenant from year to year or other to have any period, without any lease in writing, the right of the person right but from the end entitled subject thereto, or of the person through whom he of the first payment of rent. year or last claims, to make an entry or distress, or to bring an action to recover such land or rent, shall be deemed to have first accrued at the determination of the first of such years or other periods, or at the last time when any rent payable in respect of such tenancy shall have been received (which shall last happen). Where rent to 20s., re lease in writ received, no crue on the IX. And be it further enacted, That, when any person amounting shall be in possession, or in receipt of the profits of any served by a land, or in receipt of any rent, by virtue of a lease in writing, ing, shall by which a rent amounting to the yearly sum of twenty shilhave been lings or upwards shall be reserved, and the rent reserved by wrongfully such lease shall have been received by some person wrongright to ac- fully claiming to be entitled to such land or rent in reversion deterinina immediately expectant on the determination of such lease, tion of the and no payment in respect of the rent reserved by such lease shall afterwards have been made to the person rightfully entitled thereto, the right of the person entitled to such land or rent, subject to such lease, or of the person through whom he claims, to make an entry or distress, or to bring an action after the determination of such lease shall be deemed to have first accrued at the time at which the rent reserved by such lease was first so received by the person wrongfully claiming as aforesaid; and no such right shall lease. |