Tenant

In the broadest sense, one who holds or possesses lands or tenements by any kind of right or title, whether in fee, for life, for years, at will or otherwise. Cowell.

In a more restricted sense, one who holds lands of another; one who has the temporary use and occupation of real property owned by another person, (called the "landlord,") the duration and terms of hls tenancy being usually fixed by an instrument called a "lease." See Becker v. Becker, 13 App. Div, 342, 43 N. Y. Supp. 17; Bowe v. Hnnking, 135 Mass. 383, 46 Am. Rep. 471; Clift v. White, 12 N. Y. 527; Lightbody v. Truelsen, 39 Minn. 310, 40 N. W. 67; Wool-sey v. State, 30 Tex. App. 347, 17 S. W. 546. The word "tenant" conveys a much more comprehensive idea in the language of the law than it does in its popular sense. In popular language it is used more particularly as opposed to the word "landlord," and always seems to imply that the land or property is not the tenant's own, but belongs to some other person, of whom he immediately holds it. But. m the language of the law, every possessor of landed property is called a "tenant" with reference to such property, and this, whether such landed property is absolutely his own, or whether he merely holds it under a lease for a certain number of years. Brown.

In feudal law. One who holds of another (called "lord" or "superior") by some service; as fealty or rent. One who has actual possession of lands claimed in suit by another; the defendant in a real action. The correlative of "demandant." 3 Bl. Comm. 180. Strictly speaking, a "tenant" is a person who holds land; but the term is alao applied by analogy to personalty. Thus we speak of a person being tenant for llfe, or tenant in common, of stock. Sweet.

— Joint tenants. Two 'ot more persons to whom are granted lands or tenements to hold in fee-simple, fee-tail, for life, for years, or at will. 2 Bl. Comm. 179. Persons who own lands by a joint title created expressly by one and the same deed or will. 4 Kent, Comm. 357. Joint tenants have one and the same interest, accruing by one and the same conveyance, commencing at one and the same time, and held by one and the same undivided possession. 2 Bl. Comm. 180.

— Quasi tenant at sufferance. An under-tenant, who is in possession at the determination of an original lease, and is permitted by the reversioner to hold over.

— Sole tenant. He that holds lands by his own right only, without any other person being joined with him. Cowell.

— Tenant a volnnte. L. Fr. A tenant at will.

— Tene,nt at sufferance. One that comes into the possession of land by lawful title, but holds over by wrong, after the determination of his interest. 4 Kent, Comm. 116; 2 Bi. Comm. 150; Fielder v. Childs, 73 Ala. 577; Pleasants v. Claghom, 2 Miles (Pat) 304; Bright v. McOdat, 40 Ind. 525; Garner v. Hannah, 6 Duer (N. Y.) 270; Wright v. Graves, 80 Ala. 418.
—Tenant at will "is where lands or tenements are let by one man to another, to have and to hold to him at the will of the lessor, by force of which lease the lessee is in possession. In this case the lessee is called 'tenant at will,' because he hath no certain nor sure estate, for the lessor may put him out at what time it pleaseth him." Litt. § 68; Sweet. Post v. Post, 14 Barb. (N. Y.) 258; Spalding v. Hall, 6 D. 'C. 125 ; Co.nningham v. Holton, 56 Me. 36; Willis v. Harrell, 118 Ga. 906, 45 S. E. 794.
—Tenant by copy of conrt roll (shortly, "tenant by copy") is the old-fashioned name for a copyholder. Litt. § 73.

— Tenant by the cnrtesy. One who, on the death of his wife seised of an estate of inheritance, after having by her issue born alive and capable of inheriting her estate, holds the lands and tenements for the term of hls life. Co. Litt. 30a; 2 Bl. Comm. 126.

— Tenant by the manner. One who has a less -estate than a fee in land which remain in the reversioner. He is so called because in avowries and other pleadings it is specially shown, In what manner he is tenant of tne land, s(/ contradistinction to the veray tenant, who is calied simply "tenant." Ham. N. P. 393.

— Tenant for life. One who holds lands or tenements for the term of his own life, or for that of any other person, (in which case he is calied "pur auter vie,") or for more lives than one. 2 Bl. Comm. 120; In re Hyde, 41 Hun (N. Y.) 75.

— Tenant for years. One who has the temporary use and possession of lands or tenements not his own, by virtue of a lease or demise granted to him by the owner, for a determinate period of time, as for a year or a fixed number of years. 2 Bl. Comm. 140.

— Tenant from year to year. One who holds lands or tenements under the demise of another, where no certain term has been mentioned, but an annual rent has been reserved. See 1 Steph. Comm. 271; 4 Kent, Comm. Ill, 114. One who holds over, by consent given either expressly or constructively, after the determination of a lease for years. 4 Kent, Comm. 112. See Shore v. Porter, 3 Term, 16; Rothschild v. Williamson, 83 Ind. 388; Hunter v. Frost, 47 Minn. 1, 49 N. W. 327: Arbenz v. Exley. 52 W. Va. 476, 44 S. E. 149, 61 In R. A. 957.

— Tenant in capite. In feudal and old English law. Tenant in chief; one who held immediately under the king, in right of his crown and dignity. 2 Bl. Comm. 60.

— Tenant in common. Tenants in common are generally defined to be such as hold the same land together by several and distinct titles, but by unity of possession, because none knows his own severalty, and therefore they nil occupy promiscuously. 2 Bl. Comm. 191. A tenancy in common is where two or more hold the same land, with interests accruing under different titles, or accruing under the same title, but at different periods, or conferred by words of limitation importing that the grantees are to take in distinct shares. 1 Steph. Comm. 323. See Coster v. Lorillard, 14 Wend. (N. Y.) 336; Thylor v. Millard, 118 N. Y. 244, 23 N. E. 376, 6 L. R. A. 667; Siiloway v. Brown, 12 Allen (Mass.) 36; Gage v. Gage, 66 N. H. 282, 29 Atl. 543, 28 1. It. A, 829; Hunter v. State, 60 Ark. 312, 30 S. W. 42.

— Tenant in dower. This is where the husbsnd of a woman is seised of an estate of inheritance and dies ; in this case the wife shall bave the third part of ali the lands and tenements whereof he was seised at any time during the coverture, to hold to herself for life, as her dower. Co.. Litt. 30; 2 Bl. Comm. 129; Combs v. Young, 4 Yerg. (Tenn.) 225, 26 Am. Dec. 225.
—Tenant in fee-simple, (or tenant in fee.) He who has lands, tenements, or hereditaments, to hold to him and his heirs forever, generally, absolutely, and simply; without mentioning what heirs, but referring that to his own pleasure, or to the disposition of the law. 2 Bi. Comm. 104; Litt. § 1,

— Tenant in severalty. he who holds lauds and tenements in his own right only, without any other person being joined or connected with him in point of interest during his estate therein. 2 Bl. Comm. 179,

— Tenant in tail. One who holds an estate in fee-tail, that is, an estate which, by the instrument creating it, is limited to some particular heirs, exclusive of others ; as to the heirs of his body or to the heirs, male or female, of his body.

— Tenant in tail ex provisione viri. Where an owner of lands, upon or previously to marrying a wife, settled lands upon himself and his wife, and the heirs of their two bodies begotten, and then died, the wife, as survivor, became tenant in tail of the husband's lands, in consequence of the husband's provision, (ex provisione vtri.) Originally, she could bar the estate-tail like any other tenant in tail; but the husband's intention having been merely to provide for her during her widowhood, and not to enable her to bar his children of their inheritance, she was very early restrained from so doing, by the statute 32 Hen. VII. c. 36. Brown.

— Tenant of the demesne. One who is tenant of a mesne lord; as, where A. is tenant of B., and C. of A., B. is the lord, A. the mesne lord, and C. tenant of the demesne. Ham. N.. P. 392, 393.

— Tenant paravaile. The under-tenant of land ; that is, the tenant of a tenant; one who held of a mesne lord.

— Tenant to the praecipe. Before the English fines and recoveries act, if land was conveyed to a person for life with remainder to another in tnil, the tenant in tail in remainder was unable to bar the entail without the concurrence of the tenant for life, because a common recovery conid only be suffered by the person seised of the land. In such a case, if the tenant for life wished to concur in barring the entail, he usually conveyed his life-estate to some other person, in order that the prœcipe in the recovery might be issued against the latter, who was therefore called the "tenant to the prœcipe." Williams, Seis. 169; Sweet.
—Tenants by the verge "are in the same nature as tenants by copy of court roll, [i. e., copyholders.] But the reason why they be calied Tenants by the verge' is for that, when they will surrender their' tenements into the bands of their lord to the use of another, they shall have a little rod (by the custome) in their hand, the which they shall deliver to the steward or to the bailife, and the steward or bailife, according to the custome, shall deliver to him that taketh the land the same rod, or another rod, in the name of seisin; and for this cause they are calied Tenants by the verge,' but they have no other evidence [title-deed] but by copy of court roll." Litt. § 78; Co. Litt. 61a.