National Holding Co. v. Real Estate-Land Title & Trust Co.

22 Pa. D. & C. 443, 1935 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 259
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedFebruary 4, 1935
Docketno. 3128
StatusPublished

This text of 22 Pa. D. & C. 443 (National Holding Co. v. Real Estate-Land Title & Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
National Holding Co. v. Real Estate-Land Title & Trust Co., 22 Pa. D. & C. 443, 1935 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 259 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1935).

Opinion

Kun, J.,

This is an interpleader. The parties waived a jury trial.

In March of 1929 Harry Newman, the owner of property at Fifty-second and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, leased it to McCrory Stores Corporation for a term of 30 years from October 1, 1930. The lease provided for the erection upon the demised premises of a building to cost not less than $90,000. Within 60 days after the execution of the lease, the tenant was to submit to the landlord full plans and specifications for the erection of the building. Upon presentation of said plans and specifications the landlord obligated himself to deliver to the tenant :a satisfactory bond guaranteeing that at the time possession of the demised premises was taken by the tenant, the landlord would deposit $90,000 in a Philadelphia bank, which $90,000 was to be paid out from time to time for the cost of construction of' the building on architects' certificates. In addition payments out of the fund were to be made for fees, taxes and fire insurance. In the event that the amount deposited should be insufficient to complete the building the tenant was to pay said deficiency. In the event that any balance of the $90,000 remained, it was to be paid to the landlord.

On March 20, 1929, Harry Newman assigned the lease to Monarch Realty Corporation. Although so dated the assignment was not executed until some time subsequent to May 9, 1929.

On June 5, 1929, title to the demised premises was conveyed in fee to said [444]*444Monarch Realty Corporation, which acquired and held legal title to the premises for the benefit of National Holding Company, the legal plaintiff in this suit.

On June 5, 1929, the date when Monarch Realty Corporation acquired legal title to the premises, the said sum of $90,000, being money of the National Holding Company, was deposited with the Real Estate-Land Title and Trust Company for the benefit of said National Holding Company, the real owner of the premises.

On July 10,1929, Monarch Realty Corporation assigned the lease to the said National Holding Company and conveyed the premises to it in fee.

On the same day National Holding Company assigned the lease and conveyed the demised premises to H. LeRoy Webb in fee. Webb and an assignee of Webb held title to the premises and the lease for the benefit of Southeastern Investment Trust, Inc., the defendant in the interpleader proceedings before us.

By a series of letters beginning May 9, 1929, and ending June 5, 1929, the Real Estate-Land Title and Trust Company agreed to pay to the Monarch Realty Corporation interest on the deposit of $90,000 at the rate of 4 percent on the net balances.

A controversy arose between the plaintiff and defendant with respect to the sum of $4,590.68 interest accrued on said $90,000.. This has been paid into court by the bank. The use plaintiff in the proceedings is one Oliver Knight, ¡assignee of National Holding Company, and the defendant is the aforesaid Southeastern Investment Trust, Inc.

The lease defines the word “landlord” as follows:

“The word ‘landlord’ shall include the owner as well as his, her, its or their heirs, executors, administrators, successors and assigns each of whom shall have the same rights, remedies, powers and privileges as are hereunto given unto landlord as though he, she, it or they originally signed this lease as landlord, including a right to proceed in his, her, its or their own name to enter judgment by confession or otherwise.”

The lease provided that:

“All interest allowed on the deposit shall be paid to landlord.”

Defendant, assignee of the lease and the reversion claims the interest fund on the theory that the interest was to be paid to the “landlord”; that the lease defines “landlord” to include the assignee thereof; that the assignment of the lease and the reversion to said defendant was all-inclusive; so that it is entitled to the fund.

Plaintiff argues that the agreement to pay interest was one between the bank and the Monarch Realty Corporation and was created outside of the lease; that the provision in the lease regarding the payment of interest to the landlord was entirely collateral to the lease.

It is quite clear to us that the defendant cannot have such right merely because it became the assignee of the reversion.

Prior to the passage of the statute in 82 Henry VIII the benefit or burden of covenants in a lease did not run with the reversion. The occasion for the passing of this statute was the large transfer of reversionary interests which followed when the monasteries were dissolved and the King donated the reversions to various persons. The statute provided that the grantees of reversions should have the same rights against the lessees and their assignees as the original lessors had; and that lessees and their assignees should have the same rights as against the assignees of the reversion as said lessees and their assignees had had against the original lessor. This made a wholly new departure in [445]*445the law of landlord and tenant. The statute contained no definition as to the kind of covenants which were to run with the reversion. This was left to the courts. The first important decision which considered this question was Spencer’s case, 77 English Reprints 72 (1583). This held, according to Holdsworth, infra, that “If the covenant touched or concerned the estate in the land demised or something actually on it, not only the benefit, but also the burden of it, ran with that estate. ... If, however, the covenant related to something to be newly done on the land demised there was nothing in being to which the covenant could be annexed. ... It is obvious that neither principle touches covenants merely collateral, i. e., those which have no reference to the land demised. Such covenants therefore can never run with the land.” See discussion on the statute in 32 Henry VIII and covenants, in 7 W. S. Holdsworth, “The History of English Law”, 287-290.

Strictly speaking, covenants running with the land relate to rights and obligations arising between the grantee of the reversion or assignee of the lease and the tenant or his assignee. In this case the controversy is not of that kind, but is one between the assignee of the reversion and lease and its assignor.

We then come to the question as to whether the assignee became entitled to the interest, as against its assignor, by reason of the assignment of the lease and the transfer of the reversion to the assignee.

From an examination of the record in this case it is apparent that the arrangement whereby the bank agreed to pay interest on the $90,000 fund was created by contract (a series of letters) with the Monarch Realty Company, and not by the lease. The bank was not a party to the lease. The lease was a contract between the landlord and the tenant and provided that all interest allowed on the deposit should be paid to the landlord. This cannot create any rights in the assignee of the landlord. As respects said assignee the reference in the lease to interest is surplusage. The right of the Monarch Realty Company and the real party in interest, National Holding Company, to receive the interest was a matter apairt from the lease created by separate contract with the bank.

The landlord was under no obligation to put up the money until October 1, 1930, instead it paid over the fund to the 'bank in June of 1929'.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
22 Pa. D. & C. 443, 1935 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 259, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-holding-co-v-real-estate-land-title-trust-co-pactcomplphilad-1935.