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40 Cal. 384

Gage v. Bates

California Supreme Court

Decided October 15, 1870

California Supreme Court · decided 1870-10-15

Tbe facts are stated of opinion. To constitute a forfeiture for non-payment of rent at common law, it was requisite, among other things, that tbe demand should have been for tbe precise sum due. (1 Saunders Bep. 287, note 16; 1 Leon, 305; Fabain and Windsor’s case, Cro. Eliz. 209; Chipmcm v. Fhneric; 3 Cal. 273; GasJdllv. Trainer, Id. 334).

Relies on Chipman v. Emeric

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1870-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently January 2001

14 state decisions

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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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Temple, J.,

¶1delivered the opinion of the Court, "Wallace, J"., Rhodes, C. J., and Spbague, J., concurring:

¶2The complaint, which was to enforce a forfeiture for the non-payment of rent, and to recover the demised premises, avers that* “on the 2d day of duly, 1868, plaintiff duly notified defendant, in writing, that he was in arrears of rent, and on said day, in writing, demanded payment of rent then due.” This complaint is demurred to, on the ground that it does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, and the particular point of the demurrer is that the complaint does not aver a demand for the precise sum due. The demurrer was overruled, and the plaintiff recovered judgment, and the defendant appeals.

¶3The rule is well settled at common law, and has been so held in this State, that to work a forfeiture the landlord must have made a demand for the precise sum due on the premises, or wherever the rent was payable, on the day it became due, and at a reasonable time before sunset. (Taylor’s Landlord and Tenant, Sec. 493, and authorities there cited; Chipman v. Emeric, 3 Cal. 273; Gaskill v. Trainer, Id. 334.)

¶4The Statute concerning unlawful holding over of lands, tenements and. other possessions (Statutes 1863, p. 586), has changed the rule as to the time in which demand may be made. In other respects the law remains as before, and the same strictness in . making the demand is necessary. Taking the complaint most strongly against the pleader, it shows that no precise sum was demanded, and the demurrer should have been sustained.

¶5Judgment reversed and cause remanded, with directions to sustain the demurrer.

Cbockett, J., expressed no opinion^
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