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148 Mass. 582

Cofran v. Shepard

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided February 28, 1889

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1889-02-28

<p>Landlord and Tenant ■— Lease — Tenants in Common — Tenancy at Will — Tenant at Sufferance — Rent—Parties to Action — Misjoinder.</p> <p>A tenant in common of premises and a lessee thereof under a valid written lease cannot join in an action to recover rent from a tenant at sufferance, whose tenancy at will was terminated by the lease.</p>

Relies on Cunningham v. Pattee · Rising v. Stannard · Grundy v. Martin

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1889-02-28

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently March 1922

4 state decisions

1018891890190019101920decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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C. Allen, J.

¶1Leman and Stearns were tenants in common of the premises, and Leman alone executed a lease for a year to Cofran. This lease was never avoided by Stearns, but was subsequently consented to by her. Whether Stearns might have avoided the lease is unimportant. Since she did not undertake to avoid it, the lease was valid, not having, been avoided, and had the effect to terminate the tenancy at will of the defendant. Rising v. Stannard, 17 Mass. 282. Cunningham v. Pattee, 99 Mass. 248. Grundy v. Martin, 143 Mass. 279. The defendant as tenant at sufferance was liable for rent; Pub. Sts. c. 121, § 3; and Cofran, being lessee under a valid lease, had a right to recover the rent. Bunton v. Richardson, 10 Allen, 260. Stearns was not properly joined as a plaintiff in the action, and no judgment can be rendered in favor of the plaintiffs jointly. This narrow question is the only one presented to us. There was no motion to. amend by striking out the name of Stearns as plaintiff.

¶2 Judgment reversed.

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