In general the benefit of covenants which cannot be likened to
grants, and the burden of which does not fall on land, is
confined to the covenantee and those who sustain his persona,
namely, his executor or heir. In certain cases, of which the
original and type was the ancient warranty, and of which the
modern covenants for title are present examples, the sphere of
succession was enlarged by the mention of assigns, and assigns
are still allowed to represent the original covenantee for the
purposes of that contract. But it is only by way of succession
that any other person than the party to the contract can sue upon
it. Hence the plaintiff must always be privy in estate with the
covenantee.
[406] C. It is impossible, however, to tell by general reasoning
what rights will be held in English law to belong to the former
class, or where the line will be drawn between the two. The
authorities must be consulted as an arbitrary fact. Although it
might sometimes seem that the test of the first was whether the
service was of a nature capable of grant, so that if it rested
purely in covenant it would not follow the land, /1/ yet if this
test were accepted, it has already been shown that, apart from
tradition, some services which do follow the land could only be
matter of covenant. The grant of light and air, a well-
established easement, is called a covenant not to build on the
servient land to the injury of the light, by Baron Parke. /2/ And
although this might be doubted, /3/ it has been seen that at
least one well-established easement, that of fencing, cannot be
considered as a right granted out of the servient land with any
more propriety than a hundred other services which would be only
matter of contract if the law allowed them to be annexed to land
in like manner. The duty to repair exists only by way of
covenant, yet the reasoning of the leading cases is drawn from
the law of easement. On the other hand, a covenant by a lessee to
build a wall upon the leased premises was held, in Spencer's
Case, not to bind assigns unless mentioned; /4/ but Lord Coke
says that it would have bound them if it had purported to. The
analogy of warranty makes its appearance, and throws a doubt on
the fundamental principle of the case. We can only say that the
application [407] of the law is limited by custom, and by the
rule that new and unusual burdens cannot be imposed on land.
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