United States v. Inlots

26 F. Cas. 490, 2 Am. Law. Rec. 577
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern Ohio
DecidedJuly 1, 1873
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 26 F. Cas. 490 (United States v. Inlots) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Inlots, 26 F. Cas. 490, 2 Am. Law. Rec. 577 (circtsdoh 1873).

Opinion

SWING, District Judge

(charging jury). After the patience with which you have listened to the testimony in the case, and to the arguments of counsel, it only remains for the court now to give you the rules of law which shall govern you in your examination of this testimony, for the purpose of enabling you to arrive at correct conclusions as to the rights of the several parties in the case. In this particular branch of the case submitted to you now, there are seven different claimants for compensation and damages, upon each of whose claims you will be required to pass. First is that of Mr. Bodman, who claims compensation for fee; second, that of J. A. Smith, J. B. Brigel, Fox Brothers, John Lentz, Hiram B. Davis, and Wringerman. The last six claim an interest in the property as lessees. The claim of the owner in fee is for the value of the ground and buildings; that of the lessees for the value of their unexpired terms, for improvements made to the buildings, for fixtures constructed for the purpose of their business or trade, for movable articles or property used by them in their business and for damages they have sustained by reason of being compelled to move from the premises. Embraced in this latter claim is the cost of removal, damages sustained in business, for depreciation in the value of stock, for loss of goodwill, and the difference in the rents paid by them for the premises they now occupy, and those they will be able to get. These are the respective claims of the several parties against the government. The government claims that it is liable only for the value of the property taken as an entirety; and the jury, by their verdict, must apportion to the several claimants the value of their several interests therein. On behalf of the owners in fee it is insisted that the lessees have no legal ownership, or right to any portion or interest in said property, and that, as to some of them, they have no leases or contracts for the occupancy of said premises. As to those that have leases, it is said they are void, because some of them are not in conformity with the statutes of Ohio, and because others contain an express proviso that if the property is taken by the government, they shall be null and void; and, further,, that the •appropriation of the property by the government terminates all rights that previously existed, growing out of said contracts or leases, if any there should have been.

As to the effect of the condemnation of property upon the relation of landlord and tenant, upon the authorities abstractly, there may be some doubt. In the case of Folts v. Huntley, 7 Wend. 215, it was held by the supreme court of New York that an appropriation did not relieve the tenant from the payment of rent and performance of covenants. And such was the ruling of the.supreme court of Ohio in the case of Foote v. City of Cincinnati, 11 Ohio, 411. It may not be an eviction by title paramount, and yet it is the assertion of a right by the government to the property as against both landlord and tenant, by which the landlord is deprived of all control of the property, and by which the tenant is turned out of the possession thereof; and it becomes unlawful for the landlord to in anywise control the premises, or for the tenant to further occupy them, and he cannot, therefore, enjoy the consideration of his covenant. And it is said by the supreme court in Siebern v. Nicholson, 13 Wall. [80 U. S.] 156: “Whenever the property was lost to the owner by the paramount act of the state, which neither party anticipated, both are put an end to.” And it is said by Kent, in the third volume of his Commentaries (page 463), that “the obligation of a tenant to pay rent ceases when the consideration ceases, and which was the enjoyment of the land.” And Taylor, in his Landlord and Tenant (page 383), says: “If, therefore, a lot of land or other premises under lease is required to be taken for city or other public, improvements, the lease, upon confirmation of the report, becomes void.” Without attempting to analyze the nice distinctions which some of the books have taken in regard to the effect of eviction under titleparamountupon the covenants of a lease, we may say that much of the reasoning of the authorities which hold that it has not the effect to discharge the tenant from ‘.he payment of rent is based upon the fact that only a portion of the property had been taken; and yet there are two cases cited, one from New York and the other in Ohio, in which all the interests of the tenants were taken and appropriated. Without attempting to decide whether this would come within the reasoning as applicable to evictions by title paramount, or the discharge of a party from the doing an act which it was lawful for him to do at the time he agreed to do it, and which afterward became unlawful, we may say in this proceeding that our statute requires that the names of the owners and of all persons having any interest, legal or equitable, in the property, shall be set forth in the petition, and the owner or owners shall be summoned. Under this statute all these parties ha-ve been brought before the court. The court has jurisdiction of them, and they have consented that their rights may be fixed and adjudged by this tribunal. Whatever, therefore, might be the legal effect of an appropriation upon the relation of landlord and tenant, and upon the covenants of the lease, the effect of the verdict of the jury in determining their several rights, and the judgment of the court upon the verdict, must of necessity put an end to these so far as it relates to any future rights or obligations arising out of the contracts as between landlord and tenants. But the present rights of the [492]*492parties, we think, must be determined by the legal effect of their leases as they now stand.

These leases are of two characters—written and unwritten. The first section of the statute of Ohio in regard to deeds and mortgages requires that the instrument by which lands shall be conveyed or otherwise affected or incumbered shall be signed and sealed by the grantors, etc., and the signing and •sealing properly acknowledged. It is admitted by the parties in this case that but one lease is in conformity with this section of the statute. The ninth section of the statute provides that nothing in the act shall affect any lease of sohool or ministerial lands for any term not exceeding ten years, or of any other lands not exceeding three years, or to require such lease to be attested, acknowledged, or recorded; so that, if there be in this case any lease for a term not exceeding three years, it is not required to be signed, acknowledged, attested and recorded.

The lease of Mr. Davis is the only one executed in accordance with the provisions of the first section of this statute. What is the legal effect of leases not executed according to the terms of the statute? It is contended by Mr. Bodman that there was no verbal or written agreement with two of these tenants; that they are simply remaining there as tenants at will, or tenants by sufferance. I speak of Mr. Smith and Mr. Wringerman. If there is no agreement existing between Mr. Bodman and Mr. Smith for the use and occupancy of these premises for any particular length of time, he has no term in this estate. So with Mr. Wringerman. There has been nothing that I remember brought before this jury of a definite character (but of this the jury must be the judges) in regard to the time, as proven before them, when Mr. Wringerman commenced the use and occupancy of these premises, what the original contract was and when it ended, and if he entered upon a new term.

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Bluebook (online)
26 F. Cas. 490, 2 Am. Law. Rec. 577, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-inlots-circtsdoh-1873.