Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

5 N.H. 54

Pettengill v. Evans

Superior Court of New Hampshire

Decided September 15, 1829

Superior Court of New Hampshire · decided 1829-09-15

Trespass, quare clausum fregit, and entering the plaintiff’s gristmill and taking therefrom one outer door and lock, and divers other things, appurtenant thereto-on the 6th May, 1827. Held: that he had a right to remove the mill. The case comes within the strict rule and not within any exception. If these views of the case be just, neither the mortgagor nor these defendants had a right to remove the mill, nor do the acts of which the plaintiff complains.

Relies on Tobey v. Webster

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1829-09-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently May 1924

12 state decisions

3018291830184018501860187018801890190019101920decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

iJBiffthimurt.

¶1The question is whether the replication ■iwiiiiSf-pHse is a good answer to the plea ? The sub*57stance of the plea is, that the plaintiff, by deed, on the 1st March, 1822, conveyed the locus in quo to one Calef, by whose command the defendants entered and di&the acts, of which, the plaintiff complains. To thig.i£:|s:re? plied that Oalef, on the same 1st day of March, re-conveyed the same premises to the plaintiff, ⅞⅛⅜⅛.and in mortgage ; and that after the acts, of which the plaintiff complains, and before the commencement of this suit, the plaintiff entered and took possession of the premises.

¶2As Calef remained in possession after the mortgage was made, he must have been there either as tenant at will, or as a trespasser. We are inclined to think that the plaintiff had a right to view his possession in either point of light, and to treat him accordingly.

¶3Considered as a tenant at will, the acts done by the command of Calef were of such a nature as to amount in law to a determination of such a tenancy, and to make him and his servants trespassers. 1 Chitty’s Pl. 179; 3 Johns. 468, Tobey v. Webster.

¶4And even if the possession of Calef is to be considered as a trespass and amounted to an actual disseizin of the plaintiff, yet after the entry of the plaintiff, the law, by a kind of jus post Uminii, supposes the freehold all along to have continued in him, and he may. now maintain trespass. 1 Chitty’s Pl. 177.

¶5The law seems to us to be clear, that the mill, by being erected, upon the mortgaged premises and-amiexed to the freehold, became the property of the plaintiff, and the mortgagor had no right to remove it, nor any of its appurtenances. The old rule with respect to the removal of things annexed to the freehold by tenants, has in modern times been much relaxed in certain cases. Woodfall’s Landlord and Tenant, 217—232; 2 B. & B. 54, Buckland v. Butterfield ; 2 East, 88, Penton v. Robert; 3 ditto, 88, Elwes v. Maw.

¶6But there seems to be no reason, why the strict rule of former times should not be now applied as between a *58mortgagor.; and a mortgagee. For the mortgagor has only to redeem in order to have the benefit of all buildings by him erected upon the land. And if the land be not worth redeeming, the mortgagor ought not to be permitted to lessen itsNalue by removing any buildings he may have erected.

¶7We are therefore of opinion that there must be

¶8Judgment for the plaintiff.

/5/nh/54 · .json · Public domain