David Davis

“ It could work no serious injury to trade if one kind of property alone were subject to a statutory lien, but to extend this lien to all the personal property owned by a tenant in the county would interfere with it very materially. Be this as it may, the statute does in express terms confer a lien upon the crops growing or grown upon the demised premises in any year for the rent of that year, and recognizes for other personal property in the county the right of distress as it existed at common law. ”

“ The main purpose which the Bankrupt Act seeks to accomplish is to distribute the property of the bankrupt equally among his creditors, and in order to do this the creditor who has not, when proceedings are begun, such a security as binds the property is prevented from obtaining it, and thus securing a preference over another creditor. ”

“ In case of the removal or abandonment of the premises by such tenant, all grain or vegetables grown or growing upon any part of the demised premises so abandoned may be seized by the landlord, before the rent is due, and the landlord so distraining shall cause the grain or vegetables so growing to be properly cultivated and perfected, and in all cases husband such grain or vegetables, grown or growing, until the rent agreed upon shall become due, when it shall be lawful for such landlord to sell and dispose of the same as in other cases of seizure, after the rent shall have become due,' &c. ”

“ We do not seek to maintain that, before the rent becomes due, the landlord has either a superior lien over execution or attaching creditors, or the right to distrain the property for the rent; but that he, all along, has an inchoate right, which may not be asserted, and cannot be, until all the conditions upon which his right to distrain are fulfilled; and that when the conditions are fulfilled, by rent becoming due and being unpaid, then eo instanti he may issue his distress warrant and seize the property. ”

“ He has the power, when the rent falls due, to issue his execution to his bailiff for collection of his rent by levy and sale of the tenant's property. The landlord's lien is of common-law growth, and does not depend upon statutory enactments for its creation. ”

“ But it is unnecessary to consider the cases further, for whatever may be the scope of some of the decisions in the State, the exact point we are considering was decided, as we understand it, in the recent case of Hadden v. Knickerbocker, [14] and, indeed, the question does not seem to have been passed upon in any other case. ”