Holland v. Townsend

Citations

• 136 Pa. 392
• 20 A. 794
• 1890 Pa. LEXIS 1038

Syllabus

<p>1. Under § 1, act of March 21, 1772, 1 Sm. L. 370, authorizing the sale of a distress for rent “ after six days’ public notice,’’ it is not essential to the legality of the proceeding that the sale take place on the day fixed by the notice. As an incident to the power to sell, the bailiff has power to make a reasonable adjournment of the sale.</p> <p>2. An adjournment for one week is a reasonable delay, and will not of itself convert a lawful distress into a trespass; nor is it necessary, in an action of trespass for a sale made after such adjournment, that the cause of the adjournment should affirmatively appear: Ricketts v. Unangst, 15 Pa. 90, and Quinn v. Wallace, 6 Wh. 452, explained.</p> <p>3. A landlord has the right to impound a distress upon the premises for a reasonable time after the expiration of the five days allowed to the tenant by the act of 1772 for bringing replevin, which, ordinarily, will be until the day of sale in due course; and he may take exclusive possession of that part of the premises in which the distress is impounded.</p> <p>4. The fact that the landLord, after making a distress on his tenants’ goods, visited a sub-tenant of a part of the premises, cautioned him to pay no more rent to the mesne tenant, and offered to execute a new lease directly to the sub-tenant for the part of the premises occupied by him, would have no effect upon the legality of the distress.</p>