Finchden, J. puts the case of parceners making partition, and one
covenanting with the other to acquit of suit. A purchaser has the
advantage of the covenant. Belknap, for the defendants, agrees,
but distinguishes. In that case the acquittance falls on the
land, and not on the person. /2/ (That is to say, such
obligations follow the analogy of easements, and, as the burden
falls on the quasi servient estate, the benefit goes with the
dominant land to assigns, whether mentioned or not, and they are
not considered from the point of view of contract at all.
Warranty, on the other hand, is a contract pure and simple, and
lies in the blood,--falls on the person, not on the land. /3/)
Finchden: a fortiori in this case; for there the action [397] was
maintained because the plaintiff was tenant of the land from
which the suit was due, and here he is tenant of the manor where
the chapel is.
Wichingham, J.: If the king grants warren to another who is
tenant of the manor, he shall have warren, &c.; but the warren
will not pass by the grant [of the manor], because the warren is
not appendant to the manor. No more does it seem the services are
here appendant to the manor.
Thorpe, C. J., to Belknap: "There are some covenants on which no
one shall have an action, but the party to the covenant, or his
heir, and some covenants have inheritance in the land, so that
whoever has the land by alienation, or in other manner, shall
have action of covenant; [or, as it is stated in Fitzherbert's
Abridgment, /1/ the inhabitants of the land as well as every one
who has the land, shall have the covenant;] and when you say he
is not heir, he is privy of blood, and may be heir: /2/ and also
he is tenant of the land, and it is a thing which is annexed to
the chapel, which is in the manor, and so annexed to the manor,
and so he has said that the services have been rendered for all
time whereof there is memory, whence it is right this action
should be maintained." Belknap denied that the plaintiff counted
on such a prescription; but Thorpe said he did, and we bear
record of it, and the case was adjourned. /3/
It will be seen that the discussion followed the lines marked out
by the pleading. One judge thought that [398] the plaintiff was
entitled to recover as tenant of the manor. The other puisne
doubted, but agreed that the case must be discussed on the
analogy of easements. The Chief Justice, after suggesting the
possibility of sufficient privity on the ground that the
plaintiff was privy in blood and might be heir, turns to the
other argument as more promising, and evidently founds his
opinion upon it. /1/ It would almost seem that he considered a
prescriptive right enough to support the action, and it is pretty
clear that he thought that a disseisor would have had the same
rights as the plaintiff.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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