PEW RIGHTS. By the early common law, a p-rson could not obtain strictly legal rights to a pew. However, at a later date it was recognized that a legal right to a pew could be acquired. which would be pridected by the com mon-law courts. Finally. exclusive pew rights, when purchased by the pewholder, were consid ered as incorporeal right. or interests in the real property, subject to the superior right of the trustees or church corporatiwn to deal with the building as might seem best for the interests of the church. For example, the church trustees could rebuild the church, or sell it and rebuild on another site, without making compensation to the pew holders. In such eases, by the weight of authority. a pewholder would he ell to a pew of like character in the new edi fice. Howeve r. it the church corporation is dis solved, the pewholders are entitled to have the value of their pew rights returned out of the church funds. A pewholder has practically no
more substantial rights under a sale to him of the pew than under a perpetual lease, as lie can not in alit' event change the el outer of the pew a: to decorathms. etc., and cannot prevent Die Church authorities from making alterations, etc. The common law above set forth prevails in most of the United States. A few states have passed statutes expressly making pew right: real prop erty, and in others the statutes define such rights as personal property. In Ino4 churches, how ever, pews are let from year to year by a sort of verbal lease, and the pewholders merely have temporary possessory rights. Consult Phillimore, Emit sinstical Law of the rc1> of F,ityleinel (2d ed., (London. 1s'951: and the authorities referred to under PROPERTY.