T. 1, CH. 8. PART IV seal besides their common seal (a). And whenever it would occasion very great inconvenience to require their seal, it is dispensed with; as in the case of acts very frequently recurring, or too insignificant to be worth the trouble. of affixing the common seal (b). 3373. Delivery of deed of a The deed of a corporation does not need any delivery; corporation. for the apposition of their common seal gives perfection to it, without any further ceremony (c). 3374. Vict. c. 21. of Worship Sites Amendment Act, 1882. Stat. 45 & 46 [The stat. 45 & 46 Vict. c. 21 (Appendix), authorizes The Places corporations, whether ecclesiastical or lay, and whether sole or aggregate, and also other public bodies, to grant, convey, or enfranchise, under certain restrictions, land of such quantity and for such purposes as sanctioned by the Places of Worship Sites Act, 1873 (d).] 3374a. (a) 1 Pres. Shep. T. 56, 57. (b) Wells v.Kingston-upon-Hull, L. R. 10 C. P. 402. (c) 4 Cruise T. 32. c. 2, § 70. (d) Stat. 36 & 37 Vict. c. 50. TITLE II. OF SOME MISCELLANEOUS HEADS OF LAW CONNECTED WITH CONVEYANCING. CHAPTER I. OF WASTE. T. 2, CH. 1. Definition. WASTE is that which tends to the permanent deprecia- PART IV, tion of the inheritance. It is either voluntary, which is an offence of commission, as by pulling down a house; or it is permissive, which is an offence of omission only, as by suffering it to fall for want of necessary repairs (a). 3375. An act or omission is waste if it is injurious to the inheritance in any of these ways: 1. By diminishing the value of the estate. 2. By increasing the burden on it. 3. By impairing the evidence of title (b). 3376. I. Different Kinds of Waste. kinds of waste. Voluntary waste chiefly consists in these things:-1. Different Felling or destroying trees (c). 2. Destroying or injuring voluntary houses. 3. Opening mines or pits. 4. Changing the course of husbandry. 5. Destroying heirlooms (d). 6. Destroying certain kinds of living creatures which are regarded as part of the inheritance. 3377. 1. A tenant for life may cut down (a) Co. Litt. 53 a; 2 Bl. Com. 281; Burton, § 718. (b) Jones v. Chappell, L. R. 20 Eq. 539. timber trees for the 1. Waste in (c) As to trees, see Honywood v. trees and hedges. For what purposes life may cut PARTIV ordinary reparation of houses or fences; but he cannot cut down timber to build new houses or to repair those that he himself has improperly suffered to fall into tenant for decay (a). Timber trees are those which serve for building or reparation of houses; such as oak, ash, and elm, of the age of twenty years and upwards (b). By the custom of some counties, certain trees not usually considered as timber are deemed to be such, being there used for building (c). 3378. timber. What is timber. Stat. 45 & 46 Destruction of germins, trees about a house, fruit trees, [And the power of a tenant for life of settled land, to cut timber, is now extended by stat. 45 & 46 Vict. c. 38 (Appendix), which enacts by s. 35, "(1) Where a tenant for life is impeachable for waste in respect of timber, and there is on the settled land timber ripe and fit for cutting, the tenant for life, on obtaining the consent of the trustees of the settlement or an order of the Court, may cut and sell that timber or any part thereof. (2) Three-fourth parts of the net proceeds of the sale shall be set aside as and be capital money arising under this Act, and the other fourth part shall go as rents and profits" (d).] 3378a. If a tenant for life suffers the young germins or shoots to be destroyed, or cuts down willows, birch, etc., standing and fences. in the defence and safeguard of a house, or fruit trees standing in a garden or orchard, or suffers a quickset fence of whitethorn to be stubbed up or destroyed, it is waste (e). 3378b. Rights of tenant for Estates for life are often given " without impeachment life without of waste" (f), that is, without the liability to be sued for impeach ment of waste; or tenants in fee with an Where a tenant for life, impeachable for waste, wrong T. 2, CH. 1. executory devise over. Timber fully cuts down timber, the produce ought to be invested PART IV, and accumulated for the benefit of the first estate of inheritance. Where timber is blown down, he is entitled to such parts as he might legally have cut (as thinnings, wrongfully etc.), and to the interest produced by the investment of tenant for the rest (a). 3380. What a prudent owner would do in the proper or ordinary course of management is no measure of what a tenant for life without impeachment of waste may do, in regard to timber planted or left standing for ornament (b). 3381. Tenant for life, without impeachment of waste, has a right to fell timber and convert it to his own use (c), and he is entitled to the property of all timber trees blown down, and to the timber in a building which has been blown down. But he cannot delegate his right of cutting down timber to another person, so as to enable such person to exercise it after the death of the tenant for life (d). And a Court of Equity will also restrain a tenant for life without impeachment of waste, or a tenant in fee with an executory devise over, from cutting down. timber serving for shelter or ornament to a mansion-house or its grounds, as also timber not fit to be felled: which is commonly called equitable waste, because it is deemed to be improper and restrainable in equity, though it used to be permitted at law (e). But in such cases before the late Act, the Courts will not give any satisfaction to the remainderman for timber actually cut down (f). 3382. By the stat. 36 & 37 Vict. c. 66, s. 25 (3), it is enacted that "an estate for life without impeachment of waste shall (a) Bateman v. Hotchkin (No. 2), 31 Beav. 486; Bagot v. Bagot, 32 Beav. 509. (b) Ford v. Tynte, 2 D. J. & Sm. 127. (c) 1 Cruise T. 3, c. 2, § 51, 54. (d) 1 Cruise T. 3, c. 2, § 56. cut by life, or blown down. PART IV. T. 2, CH. 1. Where a Equity timber to be felled. not confer or be deemed to have conferred upon the tenant for life any legal right to commit waste of the description known as equitable waste, unless an intention to confer such right shall expressly appear by the instrument creating such estate." 3383. A Court of Equity has in some cases directed the will permit timber growing on an estate whereof a person was tenant for life to be cut down, for the purpose of paying debts and legacies charged upon the inheritance (a). The Court has also directed timber which was in a state of decay to be cut down for the benefit of the person who was tenant for life without impeachment of waste, subject to a long term, and was in a state of indigence, or in favour of the person entitled to the inheritance, where enough was left for botes, and the trees were not needed for the shelter or ornament of the house (b). 3384. Where a tenant for life has the next existing estate of inheritance, subject to intermediate contingent remainders in tail, a Court of Equity will not allow him to take advantage of that circumstance by cutting down timber, but will preserve it for the benefit of the intermediate contingent remaindermen (c). 3385. The above restrictions apply, with even greater force, to tenants for years. Where the clause without impeachment of waste is inserted in a lease for years, it will have the same limited effect as when inserted in the conveyance of an estate for life (d). And a Court of Equity will not permit a tenant for years, though without impeachment of waste, to fell timber just before the expiration of the lease (e). 3386. 2. Waste may be done in houses by pulling them down, or by suffering them to be uncovered, whereby the timbers (a) 1 Cruise T. 3, c. 2, § 46. (d) 1 Cruise T. 8, c. 2, § 12. |