Miller v. Lang

Decided January 15, 1868

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1868-01-15

Action on the Gen. Sts. c. 137, for possession of a house and land in Reading. Trial in the superior court, before Brigham, J., without a jury, when it appeared that the defendant took from the plaintiff a written lease of the premises for a year from April 30,1865, and occupied them during the term, cohabiting with his wife, but at the end of the term refused to deliver them to the plaintiff.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1868-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently May 1909

7 state decisions

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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Gray, J.

¶1A tenant in possession, even after his lease has expired, cannot deny his landlord’s title, without either surrendering possession to him, or attorning, or at least giving notice to his landlord that he shall claim under another and a valid title. Hilbourn v. Fogg, ante, 11 Morse v. Goddard, 13 Met. 177. *14Boston v. Binney, 11 Pick. 8. Zeller’s lessee v. Eckert, 4 How. 295. The only title which the defendant proposed to claim under was that of his wife, from whom he could derive no title by contract or grant. Thomson v. O’Sullivan, 6 Allen, 303. Gay v. Kingsley, 11 Allen, 345. The defendant therefore showed no title in himself, and no defence to this action. Judgment against him will not affect his wife’s title.

¶2Exceptions overruled.