The city of Lowell, having been obliged to pay damages to a party injured through a defect in one of the' highways therein, arising from the want of repair of a sidewalk, now seek their remedy to recover single damages of the defendant, as the owner of the estate, the sidewalk of which was defective. This case would be similar in principle to the case of Lowell v. Short, next preceding, if the defendant was bound to repair. But it appears from the facts stated, that the defendant had only a reversion in the estate, azid that the tenements were in the actual occupation of his tenants.
By the common law, the occupier azid not the landlord is