Young v. Columbia Inv. & Real Estate Co.

• Decision Date: 23 February 1909
• Citation: 72 A. 35,77 N.J.L. 410
• Parties: YOUNG v. COLUMBIA INVESTMENT & REAL ESTATE CO.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

72 A. 35

77 N.J.L. 410

YOUNG

v. COLUMBIA INVESTMENT & REAL ESTATE CO.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Feb. 23, 1909.

Where one enters into the possession of premises under an express agreement of purchase payments to be made in installments, the relation of landlord and tenant is not created, and a reservation or exception in the contract, which states that until the purchaser shall fully perform the contract, i. e., pay the purchase price, his interest in said property shall be only that of a tenant, does not create a tenancy; and the further stipulation that, if the purchaser fail to perform, the vendor may take proceedings allowed by law to a landlord to remove said purchaser as its tenant therefrom, does not authorize summary proceedings to remove the purchaser from possession as for nonpayment of (Syllabus by the Court.)

Certiorari on the prosecution of John M. Young against the Columbia Investment & Real Estate Company to review proceedings under the landlord and tenant act. Proceedings set aside.

Argued November term, 1908, before REED, BERGEN, and MINTURN, JJ.

Peter W. Stagg, for prosecutor. Frederick P. Schenck, for defendant, .

BERGEN, J. The writ in this case was allowed to test the sufficiency of an affidavit in proceedings to dispossess the prosecutor, under the landlord and tenant act. The affidavit sets out that the prosecutor is in possession of premises belonging to defendant "under an agreement * * * whereby the said company agreed to sell said premises to said John M. Young upon the terms and conditions thereinafter set forth, which said agreement provided for a monthly payment of $60, and further contained the following paragraph as one of the terms and conditions above mentioned: Sixth. Until said purchaser shall fully perform this contract, his interest in said property shall be only that of a tenant, and if he shall violate or fail to perform this contract, or any of the terms thereof, then said purchaser agrees, if in possession, to vacate and surrender possession of said premises on ten days' notice by mail, and said company may take any proceedings allowed by law to a landlord to remove said purchaser as its tenant therefrom." The affidavit further sets out that Young has not fully performed his contract because he has neglected to pay four monthly payments.

The objection raised is that, in undertaking to set out the terms of the holding, the whole agreement should appear, and that it does not show that the relation of...