Case ID: tenn_2/html/0233-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "White J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

BROWN FOR LAWSON’S USE vs. GEO. KITE.
    Rogersville
    
    
      May 1814
    Writ of error.
    The lessor has no right to take possession (tho’ vacant) during the term for which he leased it.
   White J.

(alone) delivered the following opinion.

This was an action founded upon a lease. The defendant has pleaded three pleas, in each of which, he has gone upon the idea that so soon as the lessee ceased to occupy the premises, it was lawful for him, the lessor, to re-enter and occupy them himself ; to each of these pleas, the plaintiff has filed a demurrer, and I am of opinion, each of those demurrers ought to have been sustained. By this lease, the defendant had parted with his interest in the premises for the term of seven years ; the plaintiff was at liberty to occupy the land, or not, as he might choose for that period. At the expiration of the term, the lessee must pay the consideration stipulated, whether the lease was of benefit to him or not. Defendant ought not, therefore, to have violated his part of the agreement, by entering upon, and cultivating the premises, during the seven years for which they were leased.

Let the judgment be reversed, the demurrers sustained, and (as the intervention of a jury is. necessary) the cause be remanded for trial, to the circuit court.