2 Binn. 146 | Pa. | 1809
delivered the court’s opinion.
The plaintiff in this suit, by indenture between him and the defendant, granted to the defendant a parcel of land in fee, out of which he reserved an annual rent-charge of sixty dollars. The deed contained a power to the grantor to reenter in case of non-payment of the rent, and to hold the land till the arrears of rent were discharged. It also contained a covenant on the part of the defendant to pay the rent. The plaintiff brought an action of covenant for non-payment of the rent, and obtained a judgment on which an execution issued, by virtue whereof the land was sold, and the 'money proceeding from the sale brought into court by the sheriff. This money is claimed by creditors of the défendant who obtained judgment prior to the plaintiff.
Two questions have been brought before the court. 1st, Whether the plaintiff shall be allowed to receive, out of the money, the amount of the arrears of rent. 2d, Whether he shall receive the interest on the rent.
The defendant’s counsel have endeavoured to prove by a very subtle argument, that in consequence of the plaintiff’s judgment, the land was totally discharged of the rent. If the law be' so-, it is incumbent on the defendant to prove it by clear authority; for it is a doctrine which bears very hard upon all persons who hold rent-charges. Cases were cited to shew that a writ of annuity lies for arrears of a rent-charge,
The defendant next resorted to another argument. The rent, says he, is extinguished by the judgment. To prove this, was cited 6 Co. 45, Higgins’s case, where it is said that an action of debt will not lie on a bond on which judgment has been obtained. Certainly it will not; and why? Because the bond debt is merged in the judgment, which is a debt of record. The obligee in the bond loses nothing by this; for although the bond is extinct, the debt is not. On the contrary, it has become a debt of a superior nature, which may be recovered by a scire facias or action of debt on the j udgment. So by virtue of the judgment in the case before us, the rent recovered is no longer a debt of specialty on which an. action of covenant lies, but a debt of record. But the rent still exists, or in other words there still exists a debt on account of the arrears of rent. Higgins’s case only proves, that the remedy for those arrears by action of covenant is gone, but it does not prove that the rent is extinct, or the land discharged. The defendant’s counsel cited 5 Com. Dig. Pleader 3 K. 20, where the law is thus laid down. “ In bar to an avowry for “ rent, the defendant in replevin may plead in bar, as in debt “ for rent.” After this general position, for which we have only the authority of Comyns, he goes on to give examples
If therefore this matter rested solely on the reason of the thing, and the cases .cited dn the part of the defendant, I should incline to the opinion that the land remained charged with the' rent. But the plaintiff’s counsel produced a manuscript case of Potts v. Rhoads, where this very point was decided by the late President Biddle, after argument in the Common Pleas in the year 1791. This opinion is entitled to great, weight; for Mr. Biddle was not only well versed in the principles of the law, but remarkably well acquainted with the practice, having held the office of deputy prothonatary of the Court of Common Pleas many years before the revolution. On the whole, the opinion of this court is that the plaintiff is entitled to receive the arrears of rent.
But shall he have interest on these arrears? The counsel on both sides have gone pretty largely into the argument, whether in general interest is recoverable as damages in an action of debt or covenant for rent. The court mean to confine their opinion to the case before them; and they think the plaintiff is not entitled to interest, because as to the present question he seeks his remedy by resorting to the land -only. If a man distrain for rent,- he must distrain for the