| Brown v Raindle | |
| Citations: | (1796) 3 Ves 296, 30 ER 998 |
| Keywords: | Co-ownership |
Brown v Raindle (1796) 30 ER 998 is an English land law case, concerning co-ownership of land. It confirmed that equity will not, in copyhold land for example, generally allow a widow the right to remain in a property where a mortgage remains in arrears.
This was a standard repossession action. The legal question arose as to enforcing repossession against a widow - would it have to wait as with the rights of the lord of the manor in the custom of that manor, under the copyhold system, until her demise.
As such a bill was filed for foreclosure, and to compel a surrender of a copyhold estate for three lives, under a covenant in the mortgage deed of 1792 (to surrender those premises as an additional security). Did a covenant of the mortgagor bar the right of his widow "to free-bench"? The custom of the manor appeared by the evidence to be, that the copyholder could convey these estates by surrender; but where he dies seised of the estate, the widow "is entitled to the estate during her widowhood as her free-bench".
Sir RP Arden said the following in his judgment.[1]