61 Ind. App. 295 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1915
It is conceded by appellant that the only questions presented on this appeal are that the decision and finding of the court are not sustained by sufficient evidence, and are contrary to law. There is no great conflict in the evidence. The radical difference between the parties is respecting its legal effect. The facts are substantially as follows: On January 1, 1907, and at all other times mentioned in the record, Anton H. Tapper was the owner of a certain business block in the city of Hammond, consisting of three stories and a basement; on said day, Tapper, by an instrument in writing, leased the ground floor of. said block to
“At the expiration of this lease, or on failure to pay rent when same is due, or on failure to comply with any of the conditions of this lease, the same shall terminate at once, without notice, and the said Anton H. Tapper, his representatives and. assigns may enter' on and take possession of said premises, and expel the occupant thereof, without in any wise being a trespasser, and a failure of said Anton H. Tapper to take possession of said premises at the time aforesaid, shall not estop him from afterwards asserting said rights, and the occupation of said premises by the said tenant after the expiration of said lease, or the forfeiture thereof, shall give him no rights as tenant, but he may be expelled at any time without notice.”
At the time of the execution of the lease, Tapper endorsed on the back of it his signed consent that the room might be sublet at any time within the granted term. On July 8, 1909, Tapper executed to appellant an instrument in writing, by which he leased the room to appellant for a term of ten years, commencing January 1, 1910, to be used in conducting a banking and trust company business'. This lease was properly executed and acknowledged before a notary public, and was duly recorded in the recorder’s office of Lake County, on July 27, 1909. Prior to January 1, 1910, Tapper notified the brew
In the ease at bar, appellee was in the peaceable possession of the room up to February 4, under a claim of right, and the evidence is not sufficient to indicate that such claim 'of right rested in bad faith. It follows that the mere fact that Tapper owned the legal title to the room, or'that the actual right to the possession, as it might be determined by a legal investigation, rested in him or appellant, did not, under the terms of the statute, justify a forcible invasion of appellee’s possession. If there was such a forcible invasion, appellant as a participator in it, and as the beneficiary of its fruits, was in the wrong in the beginning of this action, and as a consequence, he could not prevail in this proceed
Here the entry was made without the knowledge or consent of appellee, and while he was temporarily absent from the room. Had he been present in the room, and had he promptly offered resistance to the invaders as they were making the entry, or as soon as they gained occupancy, and had they overcome and expelled him from the room by . violence, it could not consistently be maintained that such an entry was peaceable. The conduct of the invaders indicated that they expected a contest. They proceeded promptly to barricade one door, and placed on guard at the other a watchman bearing the indicia of legal authority. As soon as appellee learned that Tapper and others were occupying the room, he attempted to recover or regain whatever actual possession he had lost. He was promptly and forcibly expelled, as testified to by Boles. The entire transaction we hold to have been a forcible entry within the meaning of the statute. It was reasonably calculated to provoke an encounter, or to lead to a breach of the peace that might have been serious in its consequences. It matters not whether appellee was justified, in his subsequent conduct.
Appellant, in justification of the- entry in the case at bar, bases an argument on the provision of the lease under which appellee held, as hereinbefore quoted, to the effect that at the expiration of the term of the lease, Tapper, his representatives and assigns, might enter upon and take possession of the premises, and expel the occupant thereof, without in any manner being trespassers. Appellant sup
Respecting such a provision, the following language is used in Spencer v. Commercial Co., supra: “If clauses of this kind in a lease may be summarily enforced by the parties thereto by force, then the statutes of the state defining unlawful detainer, and providing a remedy by which a landlord may obtain possession may be entirely abrogated by contracts, which permit landlords to take the law into their own hands.”
We find no error in the record for which the judgment should be reversed. The judgment is affirmed.