142. W. Blackstone observes that this law, if it ever existed, 2 Comm. was soon antiquated; for in Madox's collection of ancient charters there are some leases for years of an early date, which considerably exceed that period : that terms for 300 and 1000 years were certainly in use in the time of Edw. III., and probably in that of Edw. I.; and it appeared certain that after the statutes by which terms for years were protected from the operation of feigned recoveries, long terms were frequently created, for the purpose of defrauding the the lord's right of wardship, relief, and other feudal incidents. In modern times they have been still more extensively introduced in mortgages and family settlements. Nor him Years has no does any Seisin. 12. A tenant for years is not said to be' seised A Tenant for of the lands, the possession not being given to by the ceremony of livery of seisin. the mere delivery of a lease for years, vest estate in the lessee, but only gives him a right of entry on the land. When he has actually entered, the estate becomes vested in him, and he is then pos sessed, not properly of the land, but of the term for Gilb.Ten.34. years; the seisin of the freehold still remaining in the lessor. 13. This distinction between the possession of the tenant for years, and the seisin of the freehold, was fully established in Bracton's time :-Item darè potest quis terram quam alius tenet ad terminum annorum, salvo tamen firmario, termino suo: quia ista possessiones sese compatiuntur in una re; quod unus habeat liberum tenementum, et alius terminum. And it has been stated that the possession of a lessee for years is considered as the possession of the person Tit. 1. § 26. entitled to a freehold. But must make an Entry. 14. No estate for years can be created at common law, without an actual entry made by the person to 1 Inst. 46 b. whom the land is demised. For although the grantor 51 b. 270 a. 1 Inst. 46 b. has done every thing necessary on his part to complete the contract, so that he can never after avoid it; yet till there is a transmutation of possession, by the actual entry of the lessee, it wants the chief mark and indication of his consent, without which it might be unwarrantable to adjudge him in actual possession, to all intents and purposes: for this reason the law does not cast the immediate and actual possession on him, till he enters; neither has the lessor a reversion to grant, till such entry. 15. Upon the execution of the lease, the lessee acquires an interest, called an interesse termini; which he may at any time reduce into possession, by an actual entry. This may be made, not only by the less himself, but, in case of his death, by his executors, or administrators. ee 16. It should however be observed, that in conseTit. 11. c. 4. quence of the operation of the statute of uses, an estate for years may now be created, without an entry. An Entry before the 17. If the lessee enters before the time when the Lease begins estate for years is to commence, it is a disseisin; and is a Disseisin. no continuance of possession, after the commencement of the term, will purge it, or alter the estate of the lessee. Such entry of the lessee, before the commencement of the term, will not however devest, or turn such term to a right; so that the lessee of the term may still assign it over. Hennings v. 18. A. made a lease to B., on the 23d September, to hold to him for 21 years from Michaelmas following. The lessee entered before Michaelmas, and continued in possession for some years; then the lessor re-entered: the lessee being out of possession, assigned over the term to the plaintiff's lessor, who brought an ejectment. Judgement was given for the plaintiff; and the Court held, That the term not being to begin till Michaelmas, this was till then a future interest; that the lessee's entry before, was a disseisin, not a possession by virtue of the lease. 19. Where the commencement of an estate for Walter v. Champian, years is limited from a time past, and the lessee was Cro. Eliz. in possession prior to that period, it shall be intended 906. that he entered and occupied before, by agreement; therefore it is not a disseisin. Years may commence 20. An estate for years may be created to com- Estates for mence in futuro, though an estate of freehold cannot. For where an estate for years is created to commence in futuro. in futuro, the freehold is not thereby put in abeyance, but still continues in the lessor; so that he is capable of answering the præcipes of strangers, which may be brought against him. And before the abolition of military tenures, he was liable to perform the services which were due for the feud. 21. Where an estate for years is granted to com- And be asmence in futuro, it cannot of course be executed by signed before Entry. an immediate entry, as that would be a disseisin. It is therefore an interesse termini; but still the lessee ante, § 15. may assign it over: even if a stranger enters by wrong, yet such a grant will transfer the lessee's power of entry, and right of reducing the estate into possession. For till the entry of the lessee, the estate is not executed, but remains in the same plight as it was when the lease was made; so that no intermediate act, either of the lessor, or of a stranger, can devest or disturb it; because whoever comes to the possession, whether by right or by wrong, takes it subject to such future Wheeler v. 1 Leon 118. charge, which the lessee may execute whenever he thinks fit, as by a title prior and paramount to all such intermediate violations of the possession. 22. A person made a lease for years, to commence at a future period; after the expiration of that time, but before any entry by the lessee, the lessor being still in possession, the lessee granted over his term and interest. Resolved, that the grant was good; because the interesse termini of the lessee was not devested or Saffin's Case, turned to a right, but continued in him in the same manner as when it was first granted; and was so transferred over to another, who by his entry might reduce it into possession whenever he pleased. Tit.35. c. 10. Cro. Eliz. 15. 5 Rep. 124 a. May deter mine by Proviso. 23. If however a person entitled to an estate for years, to commence in futuro, once enters, and is put out of possession, he cannot afterwards grant over his term to a stranger: for by his entry the estate for years was actually executed; and, being after that defeated by the entry of a stranger, the lessee has only a right of entry left in him; which the policy of the law will not suffer him to transfer over to a stranger, no more than a right of action; lest such transfer should encourage maintenance. 24. Though an estate of freehold cannot be made to cease by the direction of the parties, but must be taken from the person in whom it is vested, by means somewhat similar to those by which it was given to him; yet it is otherwise in the case of an estate for 1. Inst. 214b. years: for that may be made to cease by a proviso in the conveyance itself, upon the performance of any previous act. The practice in conveyancing has therefore long been, where terms for years are created, to insert a proviso, that when the trusts of the term are satisfied, the term itself shall cease and determine. 25. Estates fo. years are considered in law as chat- Are Chattels tels real, being an interest in real property, of which Real. they have one quality, immobility, which denominates them real; but want the other, namely, a sufficient legal indeterminate duration; the utmost period for which they can last being fixed and determined. 26. In consequence of this principle estates for And vest in years do not descend to the heir of the person who dies possessed of them, but vest in his executors or administrators, like any other chattel; and although lands are frequently demised for 500 and 1000 years, yet the succession continues the same. Executors. 90 a. 27. If a lease for years be made to a bishop, parson, 1 Inst. 9 a. or other sole corporation, and his successors, yet it will go to the executors of the lessee; because a term for years being a chattel, the law allows none but the personal representatives to succeed thereto; nor can this mode of succession to a chattel be altered or controlled by any limitation of the limitation of the party. The King however, by his prerogative, may transmit a chattel to his successors. 1 Inst.351 a. 28. By the statute of frauds a husband may ad- 29 Cha. II. minister to his deceased wife; and is entitled for his c. 3. §25. own benefit to all her chattels real. The husband of n. 1. a woman possessed of a chattel real is also entitled to dispose of it during his life; if he does not execute Anon. this power, and his wife survives him, it will belong 9 Mod. 43. to her, and not to his representatives. But if the Id. 104. husband be an alien, he will not acquire any right to Tit. 5. c. 1. a term of years belonging to his wife. $28.. 29. Estates for years pass from executor to execu- 2 Comm. tor, in infinitum; but whenever the course of represen 506. tation from executor to executor is interrupted by one administration, it then becomes necessary for the ordinary to commit administration afresh, of the |