Waste

Spoil or destruction, done or permitted, to lands, houses, gardens, trees or other corporeal hereditaments, by the tenant thereof, to the prejudice of the heir or of him in reversion or remainder. 2 Bl. Comm. 281. Waste is a spoil and destruction of an estate, either in houses, woods, or lands, by demolishing, not the temporary profits only, but the very substance of the thing, thereby rendering it wild and desolate, which the common law expresses very significantly by the word "vastum." 3 Bl. Comm. 223. Waste is a lasting damage to the reversion caused by the destruction, by the tenant for life or years, of such things on the land as are not included in its temporary profits. Proffitt v. Henderson, 29 Mo. 325.

In old English criminal law. A prerogative or liberty, on the part of the crown, of committing waste on the lands of felons, by pulling down their houses, extirpating their gardens, plowing their meadows, and cutting down their woods. 4 Bl. Comm. 385.

— Commissive waste. Active or positive waste; waste done by acts of spoliation or destruction. rather than by mere neglect; the same as voluntary waste. See infra.

— Double waste. See Double.

— Equitable waste. Injury to a reversion or remainder in real estate, which is not recognized by the courts of law as waste, but which equity will interpose to prevent or remedy. Gannon v. Peterson. 193 III. 372, 62 N. E. 210, 55 L. It. A. 701; Crowe v. Wilson, 65 Md. 479, 5 Atl. 427, 57 Am. Rep. 343. Otherwise defined as an unconscientious abuse of the privilege of non-impeacbability for waste at common law, whereby a tenant for life, without impeachment of waste, will be restrained from committing willful, destructive, malicious, or extravagant waste, such as pulling down houses, cutting timber of too young a growth, or trees planted for ornament, or for shelter of premises Wharton.

— Impeachment of waste. Liability for waste committed, or a demand or suit for compensation for waste committed upon lands or tenements by a tenant thereof who has no right, to commit waste. On the other hand, a tenure "without impeachment of waste" signifies that, the tenant cannot be calied to account for waste committed.

— Nul waste. "No waste." 'The name of a plea in an action of waste, denying the commission of waste, and forming the general issue.

— Permissive waste. That kind of waste which is a matter of omission only, as by suffering a house to fall for want of necessary reparations. 2 Bl. Comm. 281; Willey v. Laraway, 64 Vt. 559, 25 Atl. 436 ; Beekman v. Van Dolsen, 63 Hun, 487, 18 N. Y. Supp. 376; White v. Wagner. 4 Har. & J. (Md.) 391, 7 Am. Dec. 674.
—'Voluntary-waste. Active or positive waste; waste done or committed, in contradistinction to that which results from mere negligence, which is calied "permissive" waste. 2 Bouv. Inst. no. 2394. Voluntary or comtaissive waste consists of injury to the demised premises or some part thereof, when occasioned by some deliberate or voluntary act, as, for instance, the pulling down of a house or removal of floors, windows, doors, furnaces, shelves, or other things affixed to and forming part of the freehold. Regan v. Luthy, 16 Daly, 413, 11 N. Y. Supp. 709. Contrasted with "permissive" waste.

— Writ of waste. The name of a writ to be issued against a tenant who has committed waste of the premises. There were anciently several forms of this writ, adapted to the particular circumstances.