111 A. 857 | Conn. | 1920
Based upon the foregoing assignments of error, the plaintiff in error in this court claims that the written lease in question was in fact a lease for twenty years if the lessee saw fit to so consider it. Or, if this claim be untenable, that a renewal was effected by the *459 acts of the parties for a second period of ten years, and that the original written lease complied with the requirements of the statute of frauds. Or, if the two claims last mentioned are untenable, that a tenancy from year to year came into being by operation of law, and that the holding over by the lessee into the month of January, 1920, initiated a new tenancy during the year 1920, and that the notice to quit given January 6th, 1920, was inoperative to terminate the tenancy.
Any lease, by agreement of the parties, may provide for a tenancy beyond the minimum term therein, in two well-recognized ways: one, by means of a covenant to renew the lease for a certain specified term upon the expiration of the term of the original lease, which covenant contemplates a further lease to be entered into by the parties; the other, by means of what are termed agreements for extension. These latter come into existence by use of a great variety of phrases, such as "the privilege of two more years if desired," or "with right to remain for a further period of ____ if he so elect," or "the privilege of continuing this lease for ____." When such expressions are used, the original lease operates as a continuous one, and the holding for a term exceeding the minimum provided in the agreement, does not require any additional instrument to give it validity. The statute of frauds is satisfied by the original lease, if it is one required to be in writing.
The authority cited by plaintiff in support of its contention that in this case the lease was for a period of twenty years (1 McAdam on Landlord Tenant, § 157), relates to agreements for extension, and not to covenants for renewal, as plainly appears from the citations in the note supporting the text. But the agreement in the case under consideration is clearly not one of the class last considered. It is a covenant *460
to renew, stated in terms in frequent use. It affords the lessee the option "to lease said premises" for a "further term of ten years." The language clearly contemplates a further agreement, and, as the term stipulated is beyond the period of one year, a written agreement. It is not an agreement for further occupation, such as would attach to and become part of the original lease, but involves the creation of another term distinct from that provided for in the lease as executed. We held in Renoud v. Daskam,
Passing to the second claim of plaintiff, that a new lease for ten years was created, and that the same was not affected by the statute of frauds, we find authority cited to the point that no written notice was necessary of the lessee's intent to renew, which doubtless is true, but entirely irrelevant; that question does not arise upon the pleadings, and there is nothing in the finding of the trial court in that regard. The form of the notice required is not of consequence, but the necessity of an election, which is the real point involved, we have just considered.
In further support of this point, the finding in the case is relied upon to the effect that the holding-over by the lessee with the consent of the lessors, constituted a renewal of the lease for a further period of ten years, which lease was immediately avoided from the fact that it was oral, and became a lease at will and, by construction, a lease from year to year. It is very clear *461
that in this expression the trial court was stating a conclusion of law, and that the only fact found is that the lessee held over with the consent of the lessors. The trial judge came to the correct solution of the problem, in holding the resulting contract a lease from year to year, but by a wrong course of reasoning. The acts of the parties, when the lessee held over with the consent of the lessors, did not bring into existence an oral lease for ten years for one brief moment only, and then to be blighted and destroyed by the withering influence of the statute of frauds. No lease, properly so-called, was made by the parties by reason of the holding over with consent, but the law made one for them, that is, created a tenancy from year to year referable to the former written lease as determining the rent reserved and some other covenants peculiar to the property demised. "The agreement for a periodic tenancy arises by presumption of law out of the continued occupation and the payment of a periodic rent." Jones on Landlord Tenant, § 180. It makes no difference whether the occupancy of the premises after the termination of the original lease was a mere holding-over, or whether at that time the parties made an unenforceable oral lease; the result is the same. Larkin
v. Avery,
The third claim of the plaintiff in error is that, assuming the invalidity of its first and second claims, there still emerged from the transaction a tenancy from year to year, continuous in its nature, unless and until one party or the other should give notice of intention to terminate before the expiration of any given year, and that a holding-over by the tenant operates to renew the lease for another year.
There is some authority for this position in English decisions and some American cases, and in the early development of doctrine in regard to such tenancies there is considerable confusion. The position, however, which has the greatest support from modern cases, makes a distinction between holding over from year to year after the determination of a prior definite lease, and a holding-over after some other form of tenancy. In the former case it is held that each year constitutes a recurring new term for that period, and unless the parties specifically renew the lease for such a period, or so conduct themselves that from their conduct a renewal may be implied by law, the tenancy terminates, and each party is free from any obligation thereunder. Leading cases to this effect are Gladwell v. Holcomb,
There is no error.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.