DISTRESS, pressure, especially of sorrow, pain or ill-fortune. As a legal term, the action of distraining or distraint, the right of a landlord to seize cattle or goods of his tenant for non-payment of rent, or the right of a person upon whose land cattle stray to seize the cattle "damage feasant" (doing damage). The cattle or goods so seized are taken without legal process as a pledge to compel the satisfaction of a demand or the redress of an injury. They can only be retained until the owner makes satisfaction. "Distress damage feasant" is also applicable to inanimate things on the land, if doing damage thereto, or to its produce. Such distress must be made during the actual trespass, and by the person aggrieved by the damage. Distress for rent however is the sense in which the term is most frequently used in its legal signification. The power of distress appears to have been derived from the feudal law and to have been substituted for a forfeiture of the tenant's holding. Until the statute 2 and 3 Will. and M. sess. 1 c. 5 the chattels distrained remained only as a pledge in the hands of the landlord and could not be sold.
Rents at common law are of three kinds, rent-service, rent charge and rent-seek and at common law distress was incident to rent-service and by special reservation to a rent charge. A rent reserved by a lease is rent-service. Distress was not incident to rent-seek until the Landlord and Tenant Act 173o. That statute also extended the remedy of distress to rents of assize and chief rents and thereby in effect abolished the most material distinction between them. But a right of distress is not incident to an obliga tion to pay provided for in an agreement, which is only a licence and does not create the relationship of landlord and tenant be tween the parties.
All personal chattels are distrainable with the following excep tions:— (i.) goods absolutely privileged: (a) things in actual use; (b) fixtures (q.v.) ; (c) goods delivered to a person in the way of his trade; (d) perishable goods; (e) goods in the custody of the law; e.g., goods already taken in execution by the sheriff ; (f) animals ferae naturae (dogs and tame deer and deer in an enclosed park may be distrained) ; (g) Crown property; (h) goods of an ambassador or his servants on the premises of an embassy; (i) certain articles exempted by special acts of parlia ment ; e.g., gas or water meters; (j) hired agricultural machinery and breeding stock in circumstances coming within the provisions of the Agricultural Holdings Act 1923; (k) goods of an under tenant or lodger (Law of Distress Amendment Act 19°8) ; (1) wearing apparel and bedding of the tenant or his family, and the tools and implements of his trade to the value of L5 (Law of Distress Amendment Act 1888) ; (ii.) goods conditionally privi leged, i.e., privileged if there are sufficient goods of other kinds on the premises to satisfy the distress : (a) implements of trade not in actual use; (b) beasts of the plough and sheep; (c) agisted stock if the Agricultural Holdings Act 1923 applies.
In order to obtain the protection afforded by the Law of Distress Amendment Act 1908, it is necessary for the under-tenant or lodger, who seeks protection, to make a declaration in writing and serve it on the landlord, his bailiff or agent employed to levy the distress after (not before) the landlord has levied the distress or authorized it to be levied. The declaration must be set out (i.) that the tenant has no interest in the goods in question and that they are the property of the person making the declaration, (ii.) the rent then due by the under-tenant or lodger, (iii.) the rent payable in future, and (iv.) an undertaking to pay all such rent to the landlord until the arrears then distrained f or have been paid off. An inventory of the goods in question must be annexed.
A distress for rent may not be made after sunset and before sunrise, nor on a Sunday. It may not be made till rent is in arrear. At common law a distress could not be made after the expiration of the lease, but since the Landlord and Tenant Act i7o9 it may be made at any time within six months of the termina tion. By the National Health Insurance Act 1924 s. io2, where an insured person is receiving sickness benefit under that act and a medical practitioner certifies that the levying of a distress would endanger the insured's life, the levy must be postponed during the currency of the certificate. The certificate is of no effect until it has been sent to the insurance committee and recorded in a special register. It operates for one week but may be renewed weekly for three months but not longer. The register may be inspected without fee. In the cases of premises to which the Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions Acts apply distress cannot be levied without leave of the court.
Six years' arrears are recoverable in ordinary cases, but if the Agricultural Holdings Act applies only one year's arrears are recoverable.
If the tenant become bankrupt the right of distress is limited to six months' rent prior to the adjudication. If more be due that must be proved for in the bankruptcy (Bankruptcy Act 1914 s. 35). If a company is being wound up its goods cannot be dis trained without leave of the court (Companies [Consolidation] Act 1908 ss. 142 and 211).
The distress for rent must be made on the land demised except in the case of the king or queen regnant and except in the case of fraudulent removals and certain rents for quarries in the Forest of Dean. Chattels clandestinely or fraudulently removed from the premises may be followed within 3o days after their removal, unless in the meantime they have been sold bond fide and for valuable consideration. Again if a landlord or his agent come to distrain cattle which he sees upon the land, and the tenant or any other person drive the cattle off the land the land lord or his agent may follow them; but this does not hold if the landlord or his agent does not see the cattle on the land or the cattle stray from the land of their own volition.
A distress may be made by the landlord himself or a certified bailiff (Law of Distress Amendment Act 1888 s. 7). This certifi cate is granted by a county court judge. He may be removed by the judge for extortion or misconduct. He should have an author ity in writing from his employer called a "distress warrant." This warrant does not require a stamp. The outer door of the tenant's house cannot lawfully be broken open in order to make a distress but if the outer door be open an inner door may be broken open if necessary.
The chattels distrained must be impounded. By the Protection of Animals Act 1911 s. 7 a person impounding any animal must supply it with a sufficient quantity of wholesome and suitable food and water. The landlord cannot sell the chattels distrained to himself. Before any sale takes place enquiry should be made at the county court registrar's office to ascertain whether the goods have been replevied (see REPLEVIN ) ; if that is not so and the rent due and charges for the distress remain unpaid at the end of five days (which must be extended at the request in writing of the tenant to 15 days) the goods should be sold for the best price which can be obtained for them (see AucrroN). The overplus, if any, must be repaid to the tenant.
Duties and penalties imposed by act of parliament (e.g., pay ment of rates and taxes) are also sometimes enforceable by distress. (A. SD.) In the United States, the process is recognized by most of the states for the taking of a personal chattel from the person to secure satisfaction for a demand.