19. The relation of landlord and tenant may be terminated in several ways. If it is a tenancy for life, it will of course terminate upon the decease of him upon whose life the lease depends; but if it be for life, or for a certain number of years depending upon some particular event, the happening of that event will determine the tenancy. So if it be for a certain number of years, independ ent of any contingency, it will expire at the last moment of the anniversary of the day from which the tenant was to hold in the last year of the tenancy. And in all these eases depending upon the express conditions of the lease, no notice to quit will be necessary in order to dissolve the relation of the parties to each other. Coke, Litt. 216; Sheppard, Touchst. 187 ; 9 Ad. & E. 879 ; 5 Johns. N. Y. 128 ; 1 Pick. Mass. 43 ; 2 Serg. & R. Penn. 49; 18 Me. 264; Taylor, Landl. & Ten. 465.
20. But a tenancy from year to year, or at will, can only be terminated by a notice to quit. This notice must be in writing ; it must be explicit, and require the tenant to remove from the premises; it must be served upon the tenant, and not upon an under tenant ; it must run in the nkme of the per son to whom possession is to be given, and not of his agent ; and if given by one of several tenants in common, it is valid only to the extent of his share, but if made by one of several joint tenants, it will enure for the benefit of all. Burr. 1603 ; 5 Esp. 196 ; Dougl. 175 ; 5 Ad. & E. 350 ; 6 Burnew. & C. 41; 10 Johns. N. Y. 270; 8 Taunt. 241 ; 2 Mann. & R. 433 ; 7 Mees. & W. Exch. 139 ; 3 Bingh. N. c. 677. At common law, this no tice was required to be one of six calendar months, ending with the period of the year at which the tenancy commenced, W.Blackst. 596 ; 3 Term, 13 ; and this rule prevails in New York, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Caro lina, Vermont, and New Jersey, as to tenan cies from year to year. 1 Vern. Ch. 311 ; 1 Johns. N. Y. 322 ; 1 Dan. Ky. 30 ; 5 Yerg. Tenn. 431; 22 Vt. 88; 4 Ired. No. C. 291; 3 Green, N. J. 181. See 17 Mass. 287. In Pennsylvania, South Carolina, New Hamp shire, and Michigan, three months' notice is required, 24 N. H. 219 ; 8 Serg. & R. Penn. 458 ; 2 Rich. So. C. 346 ; while the New-York statutes provide for its termination by giving one month's notice wherever there is a ten ancy at will, or by sufferance, created by the tenant's holding over his term, or otherwise.
21.. This relation will also be dissolved when the tenant incurs a forfeiture of hi( lease by the breach of some covenant or con dition therein contained. At common law,
a forfeiture was incurred if the tenant did any act which was inconsistent with his first relation to his landlord: as, if he impugnec the title of his lessor hy affirming by matte] of record the fee to be in a stranger, claime a greater estate than he was entitled to, oi undertook to alienate the estate in fee. Coke Litt. 251 b ; C roke Eliz. 321. But these causei of forfeiture, founded upon strict feudal prin ciples, have been generally abolished in th( United States, and a, forfeiture of a term of years now only occurs in consequence of £ breach of some express stipulation containe( in the contract: as, for the commission ol waste, non-payment of rent, or the like.
Wend. N. Y. 357 ; 2 Hill, N.Y. 554; 10 N.Y. 9; 7 Paige, Ch. N.Y. 350. A forfeiture may be waived by an acceptance of, or distraininr,o. for, rent which became due after a breaob committed by the tenant, or by giving a no tice to quit, or by any other act which ac- knowledges the continuance of the tenancy, 8 Watts, Penn. 55 ; 2 N. H. 160 ; 18 Johns. N. y. 174 ; 3 Hen. & M. Va. 436 ; 1 Binn. Penn. 333 ; 1 Mees. & W. Exch. 408; 1 Taunt. 78, and will be relieved against by the courts in all cases where it happened accidentally and the injury is capable of compensation, or where tbe damages are a mere matter of computation. 10 Ves. Ch. 6; 12 id. 475; 16 id. 405 • 2 Price, Exch. 206 ; 1 Da11. Penn. 210 ; 9 'Mod. 22.
22. Another means of dissolving a tenancy is by an operation of law, termed a merger,— which happens where a tenant purchases the fee of the reversion, or the fee descends to him as heir at law, the lease becoming there bymerged in the inheritance, the lesser estate being absorbed in the greater. To produce this result, however, it is necessary that the two estates should meet in the same person and in the same right; for if he who bas the reversion in fee marries the tenant for years, or if a tenant makes the landlord his executor, the term of years is in neither case merged, because in either case he holds the fee for his own benefit, while the term of years is taken in one caee for his wife's use, and in the other for the benefit of the estate he represents as executor. 10 Johns. N. Y. 482 ; 15 Barb. N. Y. 7; 12 N. Y. 526 ; Coke, Litt. 388 b ; Bur ton, Real Prop. 898 ; 1 Washburn, Real Prop. 354.