“And, you stupid! you did not have the lease properly drawn!”
“Exactly so, my female Solomon,” I replied, indignantly.
“Well, I must say,” said Mrs. L., “that I fear I am bound for life to
“‘A wretch so empty, that if e’er there be
In nature found the least vacuity,
’Twill be in him.’”
“Another reason is,” broke in Jones, anxious to throw oil upon the troubled waters, “that in the case of furnished lodgings, as in the case of a house, the rent is deemed to issue out of the land[451]—none of it out of the furniture[452]—so that the landlord can distrain for the whole rent;[453] and even were he to turn the tenant out, no apportionment could be made for the goods.[454] The law makes no difference between lodgers and other tenants as to the payment of their rents, or turning them out of possession.”
“Pray tell me, then, how much notice must we give?” demanded Mrs. Lawyer in tones which would lead one to imagine that she provided all the capital necessary to run the family machine.
Jones replied: “If the hiring of the apartments be from half year to half year, half a year’s notice to quit must be given; if from quarter to quarter, a quarter’s notice; if from month to month, a month’s notice; if from week to week, a week’s notice; and if a lodger leaves without giving such notice he is liable for the rent for a half year, or a quarter, or a month, or a week, as the case may be.”[455]
“Still,” I said, anxious to contradict somebody, “it has been ruled by a very learned judge that in the case of an ordinary weekly tenancy a week’s notice to quit is not implied as part of the contract unless there be usage to that effect, but that such a tenancy will cease at the end of the term without any notice; in fact, he said that he was not aware that it had ever been decided that in the case of an ordinary weekly or monthly tenancy a month’s or week’s notice to quit must be given. It is to be regarded as a tenancy for a week or a month rather than as a tenancy from week to week, or month to month, determinable by notice. Were it otherwise, such tenancies would, in almost all cases, necessarily continue for a double period, which might be inconvenient to one or both parties. Of course, even in absence of such usage, a weekly tenant who enters on a fresh week may be bound to continue until the expiration of that week, or pay the week’s rent.[456] And in New York it has been decided that in a renting by the month, or from month to month, a month’s notice to quit is not requisite.”[457]
“But surely,” urged Jones, “a reasonable notice must be given of the ending of a weekly tenancy. I remember one case in which my father was concerned, Earle, C. J., said that, although it had been laid down that a weekly or a monthly holding does not require a week’s or a month’s notice to determine it unless there be some special agreement or custom, he did not find that any person ever held that the interest of a tenant so holding might be put an end to without any notice at all. It would be most unreasonable, he continued, if a landlord were entitled to turn his weekly tenant out at twelve o’clock at night on the last day of the week; some notice must be necessary. Williams, J., gave it as his view, that whether it be a tenancy from year to year, or week to week, in either case there must be a legal expression of intention that the tenancy should cease. The inclination of his opinion was that where the holding is from week to week a week’s notice should be given, and a month’s notice where the tenancy is from month to month. Judge Willes, in a half frightened sort of way, as if he had no doubt he was wrong, considered that because in a tenancy from year to year half a year’s notice only was required, therefore he could not see how it was possible that a tenant from week to week should be entitled to more than half a week’s notice. While Byles, J., remarked that the notice to a weekly tenant should be a reasonable one.”[458]
“And doubtless he is right. And if it is necessary at all, it must, of course, expire on the proper day, i. e., at the end of some week of the tenancy.”[459]