The term of years

This chapter shows the steps whereby the tenant for years came to be protected against his lessor, and thereby to acquire an estate in land; the lease, though a chattel, became a ‘chattel real’. This required an act of judicial legislation in turning the trespassory action of ejectment – for ejecting a lessee from possession - into a real action by which the ejected lessee could be restored to possession. Ejectment was then seen to work more effectively than the real actions and assizes available to freeholders, and so a way was found of using it to displace them. Its perfection as an action for freeholders involved an elaborate fantasy with imaginary parties and imaginary leases; the procedure is illustrated. Finally, there are discussions about the possibility of creating entails and future estates in terms of years.