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Opinion of the Court, per RAPALLO, J.

ment, it did not become part of the realty, but remained the personal property of the plaintiff. If an owner of land can, by a parol agreement to work on shares, vest in another the title to half or a greater share of a crop raised on his land, or can sell the crop growing, why can he not agree that the party raising the crop shall have the whole of it? If, by making such an agreement, he induces the other to expend his labor and his money, there is no want of consideration for the contract, and I can see no legal objection to giving effect to it.

The invalidity of the parol agreement to sell and convey the land, did not affect the plaintiff's title to the crop. If the agreement had remained executory in all its parts, of course none of its stipulations could have been separately enforced, though if standing alone they might have been valid. But although, by reason of the entirety of the contract, the plaintiff could not have enforced the stipulation allowing him to possess and work the farm, so long as it remained executory, yet, after it had been so far executed that the crop had been sown and was growing, the invalidity of the other provisions of the contract, under the statute of frauds, could not be invoked by the party who refused to complete, as against the party not in default, for the purpose of invalidating that part of the contract which had been executed, and divesting the plaintiff's title to the crop raised in pursuance of it. The plaintiff was not in default, and was not the party asserting the invalidity of the contract. For aught that appears he was, when ejected, ready and willing to complete the performance of it. He therefore could not be compelled to relinquish any benefit he had acquired from its partial performance. (Dowdle v. Camp, 12 Johns., 451; Abbott v. Draper, 4 Den., 51, 53; Collier v. Coates, 17 Barb., 471, and cases cited; Erben v. Lorillard, 19 N. Y., 302, 304; 7 Cow., 92; 1 Pick., 328; 20 id., 142; King v. Brown, 2 Hill, 487; Lockwood v. Barnes, 3 id., 128; Bennett v. Scutt, 18 Barb., 347.) In Ex'rs of Pierrepont v. Barnard (2 Seld., 279) the purchaser was allowed to carry off and retain timber

Opinion of the Court, per RAPALLO, J.

actually cut in pursuance of the parol license of the vendor, though as to the timber not cut the agreement was void, under the statute of frauds, and therefore but a revocable license. The crop was the product of the plaintiff's labor and money, expended while he was in possession of the land under the agreement. That possession was originally lawful, and the plaintiff had done no act and committed no default rendering it tortious. The jury could have found that the crop was raised by the plaintiff for his own benefit, with the consent of the vendor of the land. It had not, under those circumstances, become part of the realty as between the plaintiff and the party under whom he held, but was, from the time it was sown, a chattel belonging to the plaintiff, the title to which had never been transferred to the owner of the soil or to the defendants. It could have been lawfully levied upon on execution against the plaintiff. (2 Johns., 418, 421; 9 id., 112.) And if the facts are as stated in the opening, the plaintiff had the same right to it which he would have to any chattel which he might, during his temporary possession, have placed upon the land by consent of the owner, and which remained there when he was ejected. (1 Hill, 176.)

The re-entry by the defendants upon the land did not deprive the plaintiff of his title to the crop as personalty. The defendants are alleged to have been the agents of the owner and vendor of the land, with whom the plaintiff had contracted. There is nothing to show that their entry was adverse to such owner, or that it was not in his right and behalf. If the entry had been by a stranger, and adverse not only to the plaintiff but to the party through whose contract his right to the crop as personalty was derived, such an entry might have had the effect claimed. A crop may be personalty as to one party and not as to another. As between landlord and tenant, it is personalty during the term, or even after its expiration, if the term is determinable at will, or if the lessor has agreed that the tenant shall have the crop. (Hobart, 175.) But as between the tenant and one claiming under the foreclosure of a mortgage of the landlord made prior to the lease,

Opinion of the Court, per RAPALLO, J.

it goes with the realty. (1 B. Ch., 613; 2 Den., 174.) And such is the case wherever the question arises between one who has cultivated the crop and one who enters by title paramount to the party by whose consent the property was cultivated. There is no privity between them. (Lane v. King, 8 Wend., 584.) And the same result follows from the disseizin by a third party of the party by whose consent the land was cultivated. Where land is cultivated on shares, the owner of the land and the party who works it are tenants in common of the crop as a chattel. But if the owner of the land is disseized while the crop is growing, the right to the crop as a chattel ceases. If cut by the disseizor, replevin for it cannot be maintained as against him by either of the owners of the crop. (Demott v. Hagerman, 8 Cow., 220.) But similar consequences would not follow from the mere exclusion of the sower of the crop by the owner of the land with whom he had contracted. Such an exclusion would not destroy the privity between the parties, and the character of the property would not, thereby, be changed. If it could, every owner whose land is worked on shares, could, by his own wrongful act, divest the party, with whom he has contracted, of his title to the products of his labor.

It is urged by the respondent that, by part performance of the contract of sale, the plaintiff had become entitled to specific performance in equity; that, therefore, he had an equitable title to the land when he sowed the crop, and it consequently became part of the realty.

We do not think that it lies with the defendants to assert this equity. It is clear that the plaintiff had not the legal title to the land; and the allegation was that the vendor, in whose behalf the defendants acted, refused to perform the contract to sell. Neither he nor the defendants appear to have recognized any equitable title to the land in the plaintiff and they should not, after having ejected him, be allowed to set it up for the purpose of depriving him of his property which they have appropriated. Furthermore, the equitable seizin of a vendee before conveyance is, in general, recog

Opinion of the Court, per RAPALLO, J.

nized where a conveyance is finally decreed or made, and dates. by relation from the time he was entitled to a conveyance. Here the contract was never enforced or performed.

I have, thus far, examined the case without reference to the position of the plaintiff's counsel, that the plaintiff, having entered upon the land with the license and permission of the owner to occupy and work it, became a tenant at will; and, as such, entitled to the emblements (Co. Litt., 55 b), notwithstanding that he entered under a contract of pur

chase.

The simplest form of a tenancy at will was where one man let to another to hold at the will of the lessor. (Co. Litt., 68.) But a tenancy at will may be created otherwise than by express contract; it may arise by implication. (Craft on Real Prop. § 1544.) And an obligation to pay rent is not a necessary incident of such a tenancy. Where one enters by permission of the owner for an indefinite period, and without the reservation of any rent, he is, by implication of law, a tenant at will. (Doe v. Baker, 4 Dev. [N. C.], 220.) If he be placed upon the land without any terms prescribed or rent reserved, and as a mere occupier, he is strictly a tenant at will. (Jackson v. Bradt, 2 Caine's R., 174; 4 K. C., 114-125, 11th ed.; Post v. Post, 14 Barb., 253; Burns v. Bryant, 31 N. Y., 453.) Where a householder permitted another to occupy, rent free, the occupant was held to be tenant at will (Rex v. Collett, Russ & Ry., 498; Jackson v. Bryan, 1 Johns., 322), and would be entitled to emblements. (Doe v. Price, 9 Bing., 357, 358.) A parol gift of land creates a tenancy at will. (Jackson v. Rogers, 1 Johns. Cas., 33; S. C., 2 Caine's Cases, 314.) And there is much authority in favor of the position, that one who is let into possession under a contract to purchase is strictly a tenant at will. (Washburn on Real Property, 511, 513, 515, 3d ed.; Howard v. Shaw, 8 M. & W., 118-122; Waring v. King, id., 571; Doe v. Miller, 5 Car. & P., 595; Doe v. Chamberlaine, 5 M. & W., 14; Right v. Beard, 13 East, 210; Gould v. Thompson, 4 Met., 224; 12 Mass., 325.) And he has

Opinion of the Court, per RAPALLO, J.

the right of ingress and egress to remove his effects. (Love v. Edmonston, 1 Iredell [N. C.], 152; Jones v. Jones, 2 Rich. L. R. [S. C.], 542; Doe v. Baker, 4 Dev., 220; Manchester v. Doddridge, 3 Iredell, 360; Lowry v. Tew, 3 Barb. Ch., 414; 5 Wend., 29.) He is not liable for rent, because a promise to pay rent cannot be implied in such a case, the tenant having entered under a different contract. (Smith v. Stewart, 6 Johns., 46; Bancroft v. Wardwell, 13 id., 489; Winterbottom v. Ingham, 7 Q. B., 611.) But, nevertheless, he is a tenant at will. (Howard v. Shaw, 8 M. & W., 122.) And he is not entitled to notice to quit if he makes default in his contract. (Jackson v. Miller, 7 Cow., 747.) A tenant strictly at will was not, prior to the Revised Statutes, entitled to notice to quit. (Jackson v. Bradt, 2 Caine's R., 169; Doe v. Baker, 4 Dev., 220; Jackson v. Bryan, 1 Johns., 322; 13 Maine, 214; 2 Esp., 717; Crabb on Real Property, § 1559; Post v. Post, 14 Barb., 253.) From considerations of equity, tenancies at will were, under certain circumstances, treated by the courts as tenancies from year to year merely for the sake of notice to quit. (4 Cow., 350.) This is called by Chancellor KENT a species of judicial legislation. (4 K. C., 127, 11th ed.; Jackson v. Bryan, 1 Johns., 322.) But this indulgence was not extended to a tenancy at will created by entry under a parol contract of purchase. (7 Cowen, 751, 752; Suffern v. Townsend, 9 Johns., 35; 9 id., 331.) In England, a tenant at will by entry under a contract of purchase is not entitled to notice to quit at a future time; but, unless he does some wrongful act to terminate the tenancy, he cannot be treated as a trespasser or sued in ejectment without a demand of possession. (5 Carr. & P., 595; 13 East, 210; 5 M. & W., 14.) If he makes default in his contract of purchase or commits waste, or in any other manner terminates the tenancy by his own wrongful act, he becomes a trespasser, and may be sued as such or in ejectment, and he cannot dispute the title of the party under whom he entered (Cooper v. Stower, 9 Johns., 331; Doolittle v. Eddy, 7 Barb., 74; 1 Wend., 418; 5 id., SICKELS-VOL. IV. 5

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