Bentley v. Sill

Citations

• 35 Ill. 414

Syllabus

<p>1. Landlord and tenant — eviction. Where a landlord demised certain premises to be used as sleeping rooms, owning at the time of the demise but three of the walls, and having no easement in the fourth; the roof of the premises demised being built upon and against the fourth wall, and the owner of the fourth wall in raising his building, having necessarily broken in the roof of the demised premises and rendered the demised premises unfit for the purposes for which they were leased : Held, that the tenant when he rented the building, had a right to suppose his lessor was the owner of the four walls inclosing it, or if not that he had an easement in the wall; that it was the lessor’s duty when the owner of the fourth wall raised his building to meet the exigency and protect his tenant; that this disturbance of the premises was equivalent to an eviction and suspended to that extent the payment of the rent.</p>