In re Coatsworth

37 A.D. 295, 55 N.Y.S. 753
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedFebruary 15, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 37 A.D. 295 (In re Coatsworth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Coatsworth, 37 A.D. 295, 55 N.Y.S. 753 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1899).

Opinion

Ward, J.:

The final order of the county judge of Erie county in the summary proceedings directed that a warrant issue to remove the appellants and their under tenants from the leased premises, and that the petitioners be put in full possession thereof, and awarded costs to the petitioners, excluding from decision, however, the validity of the claims of the said Louis Schoellkopf and Alfred Schoellkopf to compensation for the value of the buildings, vaults and sidewalks on said premises, and without prejudice to their rights to institute such actions at law as they may be advised to test the validity of the said claims.”

The county judge, therefore, assumed to dispose of important rights of the appellants under the lease in this summary manner, leaving the appellants to their legal remedies if they possessed any after their eviction from the premises.

Unless the notice to surrender possession was sufficient to termi[302]*302nate the tenancy, a new tenancy of five years commenced on the 1st of April, 1897. The appellants were lawfully in possession of the premises, and the order appealed from was erroneous.

The lease prescribes what the notice shall contain. It shall state the election of the lessors to take possession of the demised premises at the expiration of the lease and to pay for said buildings, vaults and sidewalks at such appraised value. * * * And such omission to give said notice shall be deemed and taken to be a renewal and continuance of this demise and lease for five years from the said first day of April, 1862, upon the same terms and conditions hereinbefore expressed except that the rent for said renewed and continued term shall be seven hundred dollars per annum payable in the same way as the last five years rents above provided for. * * * That so often as they (the lessors) shall fail to give said six months’ notice before the termination of such renewed term, they will renew the said demise and lease, and such failure shall be deemed a renewal thereof for five years from the termination thereof on the same terms and conditions as the said first renewal and continuance.”

Recurring to the notice that was in fact given, it will be seen that it fails to comply with the requisitions of the lease. It is simply an election to take possession of the demised premises, in effect, a notice to quit. It is true that the expression is used that the petitioners will take possession pursuant to the provisions of the lease, and it is claimed by the respondents’ counsel that, if they are responsible for the value of the buildings, the notice means that they will pay for them under the provisions of the lease. This statement is not equivalent to the statement required by the lease to be in the notice, that the respondents would pay for the buildings, vaults and sidewalks, and the claim thus made seems inconsistent with the position assumed by the learned counsel for the respondents, before the county judge and upon the argument of this appeal, that the respondents were not liable to pay for the buildings and that such payment was not a condition precedent to the right of the respondents to recover the possession of the premises.

As this notice was clearly insufficient to terminate the tenancy, and as a case was not made before the county judge for dispossessing the appellants, we would be justified in stopping here and reversing the order appealed from; but as the question is in the [303]*303case whether the covenant to pay for the buildings binds the respondents and whether the appellants can enforce the covenant against them, we will give it consideration.

We shall not attempt at any great extent to discuss the cases bearing upon the question as to what covenants run with the land.

It is insisted by the learned counsel for the respondents that, as they were not the original lessors, Albert T. Coatsivorth being the sole heir at law of John Coatsworth and taking as such, and Tamar M. Coatsworth and Harriet H. Jackman taking as devisees under the will of Francés Amelia Coatsworth, who was the daughter and devisee of Caleb Coatsworth, the covenant of the original, lessors to pay for the buildings is not binding upon the respondents, but was simply the personal covenant of the lessors; that the lessee covenanted for himself personally and not for his heirs and assigns that he would erect the building, and that the right of the lessee in the covenants in the lease had not been transmitted through the mesne conveyances and assignments to the appellants, and they, therefore, could not enforce the covenant to pay for the building.

From the record before us, we think it appears that the appellants have all the right to enforce the covenant in the lease which were secured by it to the lessee, Thomas J. Dudley.

The respondents rely upon the Spencer Case (5 Coke, 16), where it is held that where the covenant relates to a thing not m esse, but to be done upon the land demised, the assignee is bound if named, but if not named, he is not bound; and Tallman v. Coffin (4 N. Y. 134), which seems to sanction this rule.

It is true that in the covenant to pay for the buildings the heirs or. assigns are not named in immediate connection with that covenant.

It is also true that the heirs or assigns are not named in immediate connection with the lessee’s covenant to build; but in construing this lease, and in determining whether the heirs or assigns are bound, we must consider the whole instrument and the intention of the parties as indicated thereby.

In Masury v. Southworth (9 Ohio St. 341) it was held that a covenant relating to a thing not in esse might run with the land, though the assigns of the covenantor were not expressly named, provided that, by equivalent words or a clear intent shown by the [304]*304whole instrument, it appeared that such was the intention of the ¡parties; and see Mohr v. Parmelee (43 N. Y. Super. Ct. 320).

Where a covenant is for the benefit of an estate demised it runs with the land, and will extend to the assignee, though he is not named. (Wood Landl. & Ten. 502, § 310, and cases cited in note 7.)

Some of the covenants in the lease on both sides omit the words “ heirs or assigns; ” but these covenants are inseparably connected with other covenants where the “heirs and assigns” are bound by name, and the whole scheme of the lease contemplates that all its provisions embrace them.

A brief reference to these covenants will make this proposition clear.

The lease is under seal, and the premises are leased to the lessee,. “ his executors, administrators and assigns.” If the rent is unpaid for thirty days, the lessors, “ their heirs, executors, administrators or assigns,” may enter the demised premises and again repossess and enjoy them as in their first and former estate or estates, and expel the lessee, “ his executors, administrators or assigns,” from the premises. And, finally, the lessors, “ their heirs or assigns,” covenant with the lessee, his “ executors, administrators or assigns,” that upon the lessee, his “ executors, administrators and assigns ” paying the rent and performing all and singular the agreements on his part to be performed and kept, they shall lawfully, peaceably and quietly have, hold, enjoy and occupy the said demised premises, with the buildings thereon to be erected, for and during the said term.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Sammis v. Town of Huntington
104 Misc. 7 (New York Supreme Court, 1918)
Storandt v. Vogel & Binder Co.
140 A.D. 671 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1910)
Silberberg v. Trachtenberg
58 Misc. 536 (Appellate Terms of the Supreme Court of New York, 1908)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
37 A.D. 295, 55 N.Y.S. 753, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-coatsworth-nyappdiv-1899.