EVICTION
EVICTION. The loss or deprivation which the possessor of a thing suffers, either in whole or in part, of his right of property in such a thing, in consequence of the right of a third person established before a compenent tribunal. 10 Rep. 128; 4 Kent, Com. 475-7; 3 Id. 464-5.
2. The eviction may be total or partial. It is total, when the possessor is wholly deprived of his rights in the whole thing; partial, when he is deprived of only a portion of the thing; as, if he had fifty acres of land, and a third person recovers by a better title twenty-five; or, of some right in relation to the thing. as, if a stranger should claim and establish a right to some easement over the same. When the grantee suffers a total eviction, and he has a covenant of seisin, he recovers from the seller, the consideration money, with interest and costs, and no more. The grantor has no concern with the future rise or fall of the property, nor with the improvements made by the purchaser. This seems to be the general rule in the United States. 3 Caines' R. 111; 4 John. R. 1; 13 Johns. R. 50; 4 Dall. R. 441; Cooke's Term. R. 447; 1 Harr. & Munf. 202; 5 Munf. R. 415; 4 Halst. R. 139; 2 Bibb, R. 272. In Massachusetts, the measure of damages on a covenant of warranty, is the value of the land at the time of eviction. 3 Mass. R. 523; 4 Mass. R. 108. See, as to other states, 1 Bay, R. 19, 265; 3 Des. Eq. R. 245; 2 Const. R. 584; 2 McCord's R. 413; 3 Call's R. 326.
3. When the eviction is only partial the damages to be recovered under the covenant of seisin, are a rateable part of the original price, and they are to bear the same ratio to the whole consideration, that the value of land to which the title has failed, bears to the value of the whole tract. The contract is not rescinded, so as to entitle the vendee to the whole consideration money, but only to the amount of the relative value of the part lost. 5 Johns. R. 49; 12 Johns. R. 126; Civ. Code of Lo. 2490; 4 Kent's Com. 462. Vide 6 Bac. Ab. 44; 1 Saund. R. 204: note 2, and 322 a, note 2; 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 656.