M. E. Pickering Co. v. Friedman Realty Co.

Citations

• 57 Pa. Super. 553
• 1914 Pa. Super. LEXIS 235

Syllabus

<p>Landlord and tenant — Lease—Distress—Closed premises — Distress after sunset — Burden of proof — Evidence.</p> <p>1. Where a lease provides that “if the premises at any time be deserted or closed, the lessor may enter by force” and distrain for rent, such premises will be deemed “closed” within the meaning of the lease where it appears that the bailiff visited the premises a number of times during a period of eight days without getting in, and that he finally secured an entrance by putting his hand through a hole in a glass part of a door, and unlocking a spring lock; and this is so although other evidence showed that the premises had not been “deserted” in the sense that the lessee had forsaken them with the intention not to return.</p> <p>2., A lawful distress cannot be made after sunset and before sunrise; but if a distress otherwise lawful and regular has been made, the landlord will not be deemed a trespasser, and the distress unlawful and of no avail, if he does not prove affirmatively, in an action of replevin for the goods distrained, that the distress was made between sunrise and sunset.</p>