SOME CONTROVERTED POINTS OF LOCAL LAW 

 WITH RESPECT TO LEASES. 



By L. C. Dalton. 



There exists in this colony some difference of opinion in legal minds 

 on the subject of leases, especially with reference to what, constitutes the 

 proper execution thereof, and some useful purpose may be served by 

 putting on record what to my mind is requisite in such cases, together 

 with the reasons for my opinion. If I am correct there is no doubt 

 that many of the long leases which have been executed in this colonj 7 

 (though it is not a form of tenure which at present can be said to be 

 common) are of doubtful validity, though they have possibly received 

 some element of official recognition from the fact that they have prob- 

 ably been executed notarially. In many cases it has been deemed suffi- 

 cient to sign such leases before a notary, but in my opinion such execu- 

 tion is not in conformity with the requirements of the law. How it 

 origina'ed I have been unable to ascertain, but it may have some relation 

 to the practice of executing mortgages notarially, which practice was, I 

 am told, a lowed in this colony a considerable number of years ago, until 

 in the absence of any statutory sanction better opinions prevailed point- 

 ing to the necessity of judicial execution for their validity. 



As regards leases at any rate, the present law and practice is most 

 unsatisfactory and uncertain, and a useful purpose alone will have been 

 served if this paper could but result, by giving cause for search and dis- 

 cussion, in putting both the law and the practice on the subject of leases 

 on a definite and ascertainable basis. 



For the benefit of the many lay readers of " Timehri," perhaps I may 

 be allowed to say here that to ascertain the meaning of the word ' lease " 

 reference may be had to Webster, who tells us that a lease is "a demise 

 or letting of lands or tenements to another for life, for a term of years, or 

 at will or for any less interest than the lessor has in the property, for a 

 rent or compensation reserved." Stroud tells us ;: a lease doth proptrly 

 signify a demise or letting of lands, rent, common or any hereditament, 

 unto another for a lesser time than he that doth let it hath in it." He 

 adds that " the word ' lease' does not in law import a written instrument 

 except in those cases where by statute a -writing is required." This is of 

 interest in comparing the requirements of English law of which he speaks 

 with those of Roman Dutch law. We have no " Statute of Frauds" in 

 British Guiana, nor have we any statute which deals with the subject 

 except a solitary provision in Ordinance 6 of 1880 which requires the 

 deposit of any lease in the Registrar's Office before any transfer thereof 

 shall be valid. The law on the subject in this colony then is to be found 

 in the Common law of the colony. To ascertain what the Common law 



