Baltimore Dental Ass'n v. Fuller

• Decision Date: 18 June 1903
• Citation: 101 Va. 627,44 S.E. 771
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: BALTIMORE DENTAL ASS'N. v. FULLER.

44 S.E. 771

101 Va. 627

BALTIMORE DENTAL ASS'N.

v.FULLER.

Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.

June 18, 1903.

LANDLORD AND TENANT—NOTICE TO TERMINATE TENANCY—CONDITIONAL NOTICE—ESTOPPEL—TENANCY FROM YEAR TO YEAR.

1. A notice given a tenant by the landlord that the landlord would not renew the lease unless the tenant made certain repairs, etc., was insufficient to terminate the tenancy, not being unconditional.

2. A tenant may be estopped by his acts from denying the sufficiency of an otherwise insufficient notice to quit.

3. The estoppel can only arise where the conduct of the tenant has been such as to mislead the landlord to his prejudice.

4. A tenant for a year, who holds over after the term, is a tenant from year to year.

¶ 4. See Landlord and Tenant, vol. 32, Cent Dig. § 378.

5. A notice to terminate a lease from year to year must be given 90 days before the day of month when tenancy commenced under the lease.

Error to Corporation Court of Roanoke.

Action by A. M. Fuller against B. Dobson, trading as the Baltimore Dental Association. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant brings error. Reversed.

Scott & Staples and H. M. Ford, for plaintiff in error.

Moomaw & Woods, for defendant in error.

KEITH, P. Fuller instituted an action of unlawful detainer in the corporation court for the city of Roanoke, in which he complains that one B. Dobson, trading as the Baltimore Dental Association, unlawfully withheld from him certain premises known as rooms 10 and 11 in the Tipton Law Build-ing in the city of Roanoke. The defendant pleaded not guilty, and there was a verdict of the jury against him, upon which the court entered judgment. Upon the petition of the defendant a writ of error was awarded him by one of the judges of this court, and the case is now before us upon errors assigned in that petition.

It appears that in July, 1899, Fuller rented to the defendant the premises in dispute for the term of one year at a rental of $120 per year, payable in monthly installments of $10 each. The defendant took possession of the premises on the 24th of July, and has continued to hold the same without any further contract or agreement, and has paid all the rent accruing thereon up to the 24th of July, 1902. It thus appears that after the expiration of the first year of the lease the tenancy became one from year to year, and that the defendant was entitled to a notice to quit under the statute. Some disagreement having arisen between the plaintiff and defendant with respect to replacing glass which had been broken in the doors and windows upon the premises, the landlord requiring the tenant to make the repairs, and the tenant failing to do so in compliance with the demand, on March 7, 1902, one Gregory, acting as the agent of Fuller, addressed a letter to the Baltimore Dental Association as follows:

"On account of your failure to repair the damage done by the manager of your office or your employes to one front window and one glass door of the rooms occupied by you, and on account of the great annoyance you have caused the Snyder-Stoll Co. by allowing water to run down in their store, damaging their goods, on numerous occasions, I beg to advise you that, if the broken glass is not replaced promptly, and satisfactory assurance given that there will be no further annoyance to the Snyder-Toll Co. by your allowing water to run down on them from your premises, I shall not wish to renew your lease after the expiration of the current year, which, as you know, expires with the 23rd day of July, 1902."

And on May 15th the following letter:

"I wrote you on the 7th of March that, unless you promptly repaired the damage to the office occupied by you, namely, 1 window...