66 Me. 520 | Me. | 1876
This is an action of forcible entry and detain-er. The tenants claim possession by virtue of a lease from the complainants under seal. The rights of the parties depend upon the construction to be given to its terms.
The lease in question clearly describes the premises leased and the rent to be paid. The tenant after the expiration of the year remained. His so remaining is an election to continue the tenancy. “The question whether a written instrument is a lease, or only an agreement for a lease, depends,” observes Ames, J. in Kabley v. Worcester Gas Light Co., 102 Mass. 392, “on the intention of the parties to be collected from the whole instrument. Bacon v. Bowdoin, 22 Pick. 401. The form of expression we agree to rent or lease’ is far from being decisive upon this question, and does not necessarily import that a lease is to be given at a future day. On the contrary, those words may take effect as a present demise, and the words ‘agree to let’ have been held to mean exactly the same thing as the word ‘let’ unless there be something in the instrument to show that a present demise could not have been in the contemplation of the parties.” Doe v. Benjamin, 9 Ad. & El. 644. In Doe v. Ries, 8 Bing. 178, Tindal, C. J., says, “agrees to let and agrees to take, have been held words of present demise from the case of Goodtitle d. Estwicke v. Way, 1 T. R. 735, to the present time.” In Kramer v. Cook, 7 Gray, 550, the contract was “to hold for the term of three years from the date hereof . . . and, at the election of the said Cook, for the further term of two years next after said term of three years, yielding and paying,” &c. “The provision in the lease,” remarks Thomas, J. “is not a mere covenant of the plaintiff for renewal; no formal renewal was contemplated by the parties. The agreement itself is, as to the additional term, a lease de futuro, requiring only the lapse of the preceding term and the election of the defendant to become a lease in presentí. All that is necessary to its validity is the fact of election.” In Weed
The tenant was to go into possession of the premises under the lease for a year, and he did. Being in possession under the lease, it could not have been the expectation of the complainants that he should quit possession and take a new lease and then enter under such lease. The parties must have intended that the occupation of the tenant should continue as long as he should wish to occupy the premises leased.
The plaintiff offered to show by circumstances attending the giving of the lease, that it was fraudulently obtained. This evidence was erroneously excluded by the justice presiding.
Exceptions sustained.