46 S.C.L. 565 | S.C. Ct. App. | 1860
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
The Statute of Frauds, 2 Stat. 525, provides that “ no action shall be brought to charge any person on any contract or sale of lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or any interest in or concerning the same, unless the agreement, or some note or memorandum thereof, shall be in writing and signed by the party to be charged therewith, or some other person thereunto, by him lawfully authorized.” The question in this case principally argued before us is, whether a house on Sullivan’s Island be an
No argument nor commentary can make it plainer than do the words of the Legislature in their fair import, that the occupants of Sullivan’s Island, before 1857, had no interest in the land itself, and were mere tenants at the will of the State. They were proprietors of the houses as chattels, expressly separated from the soil by agreement between them and the State, that they should have the privilege, or liberty, or license, as it is variously described
It is suggested that the State cannot let lands at its will, and that a natural person only can be the landlord in such relation. Neither authority nor principle sustains this distinction. The State, with every body corporate, having complete title to lands, may exercise all the rights of a proprietor, and, in the exercise of such rights, acts
It is said that tbe stipulation, that tbe tenancy shall be determined whenever the occupant does not rebuild for a year, is in tbe nature of a forfeiture, as for wrongful alienation of a limited estate, or for crime. Without undertaking to determine whether there can be forfeiture, by our law, for such cause, of an estate in fee, absolute or base, and such, according to tbe argument in behalf of defendant, is tbe estate in tbe occupants of tbe island — it is sufficient to say, that, according to our view, tbe estate is held at tbe will of tbe State, and that there is no forfeiture in the case, in any other sense than is applicable to tbe determination of every tenancy at will. Tbe right of the tenants to possession ceases, and the land returns to its previous condition.
Again it is said, that tbe liability of tbe tenants to surrender tbe possession when required by tbe agent of tbe State, is tbe mere expression of that wbicb is implied by universal law, that in time of war,, bouses and lands near a fortress may be seized, if necessary, in tbe exigency of affairs, and that in time of peace private property may be taken for public use. It is true that tbe agent of tbe State named to demand possession is designated by bis full constitutional title of office, governor and commander-in-chief, but this courteous designation is not employed in reference to a state of war, or to bis authority over the militia, and the agency is conferred on him appropriately, as tbe chief executive officer, and is not limited to military
In all the documents offered in evidence, the subject of contract is described as a house merely, without intimation of title in the land. It is so called in the caption and body of the advertisement, in the letter from N. B. Mazyck to defendant, and in the letters of defendant, dated August 25, and November 28.
If, then, the parties were right in concluding that a house alone, a chattel, was the subject of contract, the house would pass by mere delivery, unaided by any written muniment; and the circuit Judge properly confined the consideration of the jury to the fact of delivery. His instructions to the jury, detailed in the report, are then unexceptionable, and their finding conclusive. Indeed, if defendant’s letter, written and sent on the day of sale it seems, although bearing date the day after, August 25, 1851, be properly weighed, it can hardly be doubted that he then took possession of the house as owner, discontinuing his possession as tenant.
These remarks dispose of the appeal; and we reserve from judgment the question as to the sufficiency of the memorandum under the statute, if the house be regarded as an interest in land. We say something on the topic, mainly to guard against the inference, that we adjudge the ruling of the Judge on circuit to be right. It is well settled, that it is sufficient if the required memorandum be signed by thé party alone who is to be charged by the action, and that signing by the auctioneer is a signing
It is ordered that the motions for nonsuit and new trial be dismissed.
Motions dismissed.