Wilgus v. LeWis

• Decision Date: 17 February 1880
• Citation: 8 Mo.App. 336
• Parties: JOHN B. WILGUS, Respondent, v. CHARLES R. LEWIS ET AL., Appellants.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

8 Mo.App. 336

JOHN B. WILGUS, Respondent,

v.CHARLES R. LEWIS ET AL., Appellants.

St. Louis Court of Appeals, Missouri.

Feb. 17, 1880.

1. Where one holds over under a written lease for a year, the payment by him and the acceptance by the lessor of rent at the lease rate implies a new leasing by oral contract on the original terms.

2. In such a case, where the building is in a city, the tenancy is from month to month, to terminate which the notice must either specify the exact day on which the month expires, or state generally that the tenancy will terminate in one month from the next rent-day.

A provision in the lease that for every day the tenant holds over he shall pay double rent, is waived by the payment and acceptance of rent according to the old terms.

4. Incoming partners of the original lessee of the premises occupied for the business of the firm are bound by the terms of the lease.

APPEAL from the St. Louis Circuit Court.

Affirmed.

CHARLES T. NOLAND, for the appellants: The lease provided for a holding over, and that agreement not being annulled, it stands, and the law will not imply any other contract.-- Christy v. Price, 7 Mo. 430; Stellings v. Sappington, 8 Mo. 118; Chambers v. King, 8 Mo. 517; Brown v. Gauss, 10 Mo. 265. The appellants were not tenants from month to month, and notice to quit was not necessary.-- Deaver v. Randall, 5 Mo. App. 297. The condition as to holding over could not be waived.-- Walker v. Engler, 30 Mo. 130; Weil v. Tyler, 38 Mo. 547; 1 Pars. on Con. 475.

THOMAS K. SKINKER, for the respondent: By holding over and paying rent at the rate specified in the lease, the lessee became the lessor's tenant for another year on the same terms.-- Hunt v. Bailey, 39 Mo. 266; Finney v. St. Louis, 39 Mo. 180; Constant v. Abell, 36 Mo. 179; Quinette v. Carpenter, 35 Mo. 502; Insurance & Law Building Co. v. National Bank, Sup. Ct. Mo. (MS.); Railroad Co. v. Ludwig, 6 Mo. App. 584; Bircher v. Parker, 40 Mo. 118; Bacon v. Brown, 9 Conn. 334; Jackson v. Salmon, 4 Wend. 327; Abeel v. Radcliff, 15 Johns. 505. Incoming partners are bound by the terms of the lease.-- Hilsby v. Mears, 5 Barn. & Cress. 504; Jackson v. Salmon, 4 Wend. 327. If they were tenants from month to month, then a notice of one month was requisite. The notice given was not valid for this purpose, because it named an intermediate day, instead of the last day of the month, for surrendering possession. Such a notice is a nullity.-- Sanford v. Harvey, 11 Cush. 93; Prescott v. Elm, 7 Cush. 346; 2 Archb. N. P. 376, 377 (vol. 48, Law Lib.); Comyn's L. & T. ^*304, 305 (vol. 4, Law Lib. 171); Taylor's L. & T. (7th ed.), sects. 475, 476; Prickett v. Ritter, 17 Ill. 98.

BAKEWELL, J., delivered the opinion of the court.

This action is for rent of a building in St. Louis during the month of June, 1878. There was a finding and judgment for plaintiff.

It appears from the pleadings and evidence that plaintiff, by written lease, demised the premises in question to defendant Lewis and his then copartners in business, for a term of one year from January 1, 1877, at the yearly rent of $4,500, payable in monthly instalments. On July 21, 1877, the new firm was formed, consisting of defendant Lewis, one of the original lessees, and his present co-defendants, who remained in possession after the expiration of the lease, and until May 15, 1878, when they left the premises and tendered the keys to plaintiff's agent, who refused to receive them. The lease contained a provision that “the lessees, and all holding under them, engage to pay the rent reserved, and double rent for every day they, or any one else in their name, shall hold on to the whole or any part of said tenement after the expiration of the lease.”

At the expiration of the term, defendants applied to Carpenter, the agent of plaintiff, for a reduction of rent. He offered to reduce the rent to $4,000 if defendant would take a lease for a year. This they declined. Defendants then offered to take a lease for a year at $3,600. This Carpenter declined. Whilst these propositions were being exchanged, defendants remained in possession without paying rent, Carpenter telling defendants that the lease required them to pay at the rate at which they had paid up to January, unless they took a new lease. On April 13th, Lewis sent for Carpenter to come and get his rent. At this interview, Carpenter asked if the defendants would accept the premises at $3,600, as they had suggested. Lewis said it was too late, that they would vacate the premises on April 15th, and serve him with notice to that effect. Carpenter told defendants that he could not wait, that he was going to his office, and notice might be served on him there. Defendants on the same day served a notice to quit on May 15th. On the same day defendants paid their rent to April 1st, taking three receipts for the same--one for each month, for $375 each. The bill was first made out for three months' rent, but was changed at the suggestion of Lewis, who said that the acceptance of such a receipt might be an admission of a quarterly tenancy. On May 2, defendants paid the April rent, $375. On the 15th they left the premises, and on the next day they tendered $375 for the May rent, asking a receipt in full. The tender was refused. Defendants then wrote to plaintiff, stating that his agent refused to recognize their notice of April 13th, and although the rent had been tendered for May, claimed that defendants were liable for further rent; and asking his interference. Afterwards, on May 30th, defendants, by advice of counsel, served Carpenter with a new notice, in which they offer to pay the rent for May, refer to their former notice, and claim that it is good; and say that if the tenancy is not, by means of the former notice, terminated on May 31st, it is their intention by this notice to terminate the tenancy in one month from the day that the May rent is due--that is, on June 30, 1878. On the same day defendants paid $375 under protest, taking a receipt for the month ending May 31st. Carpenter at this time refused to sign a receipt in full of all demands, and all further communications about the matter between the parties ceased with the demand, on July 1st, of the June rent, which was not paid, and for which this suit was brought.

Notwithstanding the dissimilarity of the statutes, the English rule has been adopted in Missouri; and it is quite settled with us, by a uniform course of decisions, that a verbal permission to hold over under a written lease creates a tenancy from year to year. Hammon v. Douglas, 50 Mo. 434. It is needless to examine whether the assumption of any such...