Waste

Remedies for Waste.

The landlord is entitled to compensa tion for deterioration in the value of a holding by the failure of the tenant to cultivate according to the rules of good husbandry or the contract of tenancy (s. Io). See also Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 (s. 1). Proceedings may be taken either by action for damages, or by application for an injunction, or by both combined, and either in the king's bench or in the chancery divisions. See Supreme Court of Judicature (Consolidation) Act 1925, s. 45. The law of waste as it affects ecclesiastical benefices will be found under DILAPIDATION.

Scotland.

In Scots law "waste" is not used as a technical term, but the respective rights of fiar and life-renter are much the same as in England. As a general rule, a life-renter has no right to cut timber, even though planted by himself. An exception is admitted in the case of coppice wood, which is cut at regular intervals and allowed to grow again from the roots. Grown timber is also available to the life-renter for the purpose of keeping up the estate or repairing buildings. Before making use of mature timber for estate purposes, the life-renter should give notice to the fiar. He is also entitled to the benefit of ordinary windfalls. Extraordinary windfalls are treated as grown timber. Life-renters by "constitution" (i.e., by grant from the proprietor) as opposed to life-renters by "reservation" (where the proprietor has reserved the life-rent to himself in conveying the fee to another) have, as a rule, no right to coals or minerals underground if they are not expressed in the grant or appear to have been intended by a testator to pass by his settlement, for they are partes soli. Where coals or minerals are expressed in the grant, and also in cases of life-rent by "reservation," the life-renter may work any mine which had been opened before the beginning of his right, provided he does not employ a greater number of miners, or bring up a greater quantity of minerals, than the unburdened proprietor did. All life-renters are entitled to such minerals as are required for domestic use and estate purposes.

British Possessions.—French law (u. i.) is in force in Mauri tius, and has been followed in substance in the civil codes of Quebec (art. 455) and St. Lucia (art. 406). In most of the other colonies the rules of English law are followed, and in many of them there has been legislation on the lines of the English Settled Land Acts. In India the law as to waste is included to some extent in the Transfer of Property Act (No. IV. of 1882) and its amendments. Section 108 deals with the liabilities of lessees for waste, which may be varied by the terms of the lease or by local usage. The liabilities for waste of persons having under Hindu or Mohammedan law limited interests in reality depend in the main ,upon those laws, not on Indian statutes.

United States.—Following the general principle that the com mon law was applicable only in so far as it served American needs, American courts adapted the common law doctrine of waste to the requirements of a continuously expanding country. The application of the English law of waste was thus restricted to stimulate the development of the land by the tenant in possession. Good husbandry upon his part was the criterion by which the character of his acts as waste was determined. The conversion of meadow and wood land into arable land was thus permissible. In view of the quantity of land available for use by simply clear ing away the timber, cutting timber for the purpose of cultivating the soil was not regarded as waste. With the disappearance of pioneer conditions, except in the far western States, a tendency toward greater stringency in the application of the doctrine of waste is apparent. This is particularly noticeable in such highly industrialized States as those of the northern Atlantic seaboard. The difference, however, lies largely in a change in the character of what good husbandry demands, rather than a change in the legal principle. The remedy for waste lies either by an action at law for damages due to waste or by an injunction to restrain further waste and to compel an accounting for the waste done. Few cases in which the old common law action for forfeiture of the tenancy because of waste are to be found in the American reports.

Europe.

The French Civil Code provides (art. 591) that the usufructuary may cut timber in plantations that are laid out for cutting, and are cut at regular intervals, although he is bound to follow the example of former proprietors as to quantity and times. This provision is in force in Belgium (Civil Code, art. 591). Analogous provisions are to be found in the civil codes of Holland (art. 814), Spain (art. 485), Italy (art. 486), and cf. the German Civil Code, art. 1036.

BIBLiocRApEtv-i—English law: W. Woodfall, Law of Landlord and Tenant (1802) ; W. A. Bewes, Law of Waste (1894) ; W. M. Fawcett, Law of Landlord and Tenant (19oo); E. Foa, Relationship of Land lord and Tenant (1924). Scots law: J. Erskine, Principles (19II) ; W. M. Gloag and R. C. Henderson, Introd. to Scots Law (1927). Irish law: F. Nolan and R. R. Kane, Statutes relating to the Law of Landlord and Tenant in Ireland (1898) ; J. 0. Wylie and L. S. Eiffe, Judicature Acts, 1877, 1878 (1881). American law: H. T. Tiffany, Real Property (2d ed. 192o). Indian law: H. H. Shephard and K. Brown, Commentaries on Indian Transfer of Property Act 1882 (Iwo).

(A. W. R.)