Cornelia M. Stewart, Appellant v. the Long Island Railroad Company, Respondent

Summary

The Court of Appeals held that the 1876 contract between the Flushing, North Shore and Central Railroad Company and the Long Island Railroad Company was an assignment of the entire fifty‑year lease granted by Alexander T. Stewart, thereby creating privity of estate with Stewart’s devisee and making the defendant liable for the rent. The Court reasoned that the covenant to surrender at the end of the ninety‑nine‑year term did not preserve any fragment of the original term, and the purchase‑price provision was a condition precedent, not a merger of the lease. The judgment of the General Term was reversed and a new trial ordered. Justice Finch dissented, arguing that the instrument was a sub‑lease and not an assignment.