Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/49

* RENT. 33 REPEAL. referred to is a rijjlit in the nature of an ease- ment, or more accurately a profit ii prendre, in the hmd of anotlier. and it ennies into existence', not hv agreement or in conn<'ction with a U'ase_ but, as sueli incorporeal rights alva,vs do, by grant or |)rescription. The right to take the rent is a s])eeies of real pro|iert.v which may be held, like any other estate, for life or years or in fee, and which is capable of alienation, and, if held in fee, of transmission by inheritance. The common law distinguished three kinds of such rents, viz. rent service, rent charge, and rent seek. The rent sen-ice was merely the old feudal rent surviving into a period which had forgotten its origin. It existed only wlien lands were held by one of another in fee, and where, aecordinglj', the rent due was in the natvire of a feudal ser- vice. The rent charge is the rent just described as arising bj- grant of the owner of the land on which it is charged. The distinguishing char- acteristic of this was the fact that it was en- forceable by distress. The rent seek was mere- ly the rent charge without the power of dis- tress annexed. Of these three forms of rent the rent service is obsolete, excepting, per- haps, in a few manors in England (see Quit- bext) ; rent charge survives unchanged except where distress has been abolished, and there all rents charged on land by deed or will are prop- erly rents seek. It is to the class of rents charge, rather than of contract rents, that we must refer the so-called fee-farm rents. See Fee. Consult the Commentaries of Blackstonc and Kent; Williams, Laic of Real Properlii (19th ed., London, 1901); JNIaine. Earli/ History of Institutions (Amer. ed., New York, 1895). See Incorpore.^l ; Hereditament; Landlord and Tenant; Lease. RENUNCIATION. In law, the disavowal or abandonment of an official or property right. Of the latter class are the renunciation b,v an heir, deviser, or legatee of the property, real or personal, to which bv operation of law or under the will of his testator he is entitled. Of the former class is the more frequent case of the refusal by an executor, administrator, or trustee of the office conferred upon him. The formality of renunciation is in either case of the simplest character, a letter or other written expression of intention being the usual form. In Scotland the term renunciation is employed to denote the surrender (q.v. ) of an estate for life or years to tlie lanillord. REN'WICK, .LMES (1062-88). A Scottish Covenanter, born at Moniaive. Dumfriesshire. He was a student at Edinburgh Universit.v, but re- ceived no degree there, because of his refusal to acknowledge Charles II. as head of the Church, and therefore finislied his theological education at Groningen. Holland. In 1(58.3 he returned to Scotland and began preaching at conventicles. He was outlawed for his collaboration with Alexander Shields in An. fnformator;/ Mndiea- iion of the Covenanters (10S4). In 1087 he had become the virtual leader of the Cameronians, who were excluded from the Act of Toleration, and was finally captured and executed at Edin- burgh. RENWICK, James (1818-9.5). An American architect. He was born in New York and edu- cated at Columbia College. He constructed the distributing reservoir of the Croton Aqueduct in Xcw V(uk Cit.v and was for siime years an archi- tect on the Erie Railroad,. iong the buildings desigiu'd by him are X'assar College, I'ougbkce])- sie, Xcw York; Saint Patrick's Cathedral. (Irace, and Calvary Church. New York; and the Smith- sonian Institution and Corcoran Callerv at Washington. He left a valuable art collection to the Jletropolitan jMuseum. REPAIRS. In the law of real proiwrty, such acts of construction and amendment as are neces- sary to keep the buildings of an estate from deterioration ;ind decay. B.y the common law of England and America the obligation to repair rests on the tenant in possession, whether his estate be for life or ,years. It is, in fact, an incident of such a tenancy and flows from the doctrine of waste, and this includes the whole- sale restoration of premises destroyed by fire, as well as current repairs called for by ordinar.y uses or mere lapse of time, excepting where (as now generally in the United States) this harsh rule of the common law has been modified by statute. The obligation to repair does not ex- teiul to a tenant at will or at snll'cranee, nor to a joint tenant or tenant in common (whether in possession of the premises or not), nor generally to a mortgagee in possession. This common-law obligation of the tenant to keep the premises in repair is sometimes varied by local custom and more frequently by agree- ment of the parties. See Eviction ; Landlord AND Tenant; Lease; W.4^ste. REPARATION (Lat. reparatio, from repa- rarc, to restore, repair, from re-, back again, anew -f- parare, to prepare). In law, the redress of an injur,y by making compensation therefor, or by restoring something which has been unlaw- fully taken from one entitled to its possession. See Damages. REPEAL (OF. rapeler, Fr. rappeler, to recall, revoke, repeal, from re-, back + OF. apeter, Fr. appeler, to call, appeal, from Lat. appellare, to address, appeal, to call, summon). The oblitera- tion or abrogation of a statute by anotlier act of a legislative body. Where an act declares in positive terms that another shall be abrogated, it is said to be an express repeal, bvit where a statute contains absolutely inconsistent provisions with a prior one, and does not refer to it directly, it is said to repeal the latter by implication. It is in the latter class of cases that the greatest difficulty arises. The provisions of the subse- quent act nuist be absolutely contrary or re- pugnant to those of the former, so that it is clear that they must have been intended to super- sede the former, in order to work out a rejjeal by implication. An act may repeal only portions of another, and the provisions not thus expressly repealed will continue in force. The same is true where a subsequent statute is only incon- sistent with a former one in some provisions. Where it is desired to alter some of the pro- visions of an act, it is usually mneniled, by striking out some part of it and substituting new- provisions. An amendment, therefore, is a change or alteration, whereas a repealing act abrogates or wipes out the i)rovisions of the statute to which it applies. Under the connnon law the subsctpient repeal of an express repealing act has the ell'cct of restoring or reviving the statute which had been abrogated by the latter, but this