Defeasance (defeasance) - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition defeasance-defeasance

Definition :

Defeasance (defeasance) [fr. defaire, Fr., to undo], a collateral deed accompanying another, providing that upon the performance of certain matters an estate or interest created by such other deed shall be defeated and determined.

A defeasance should recite the deed to be defeated and its date, and must be made between the same parties as are interested in the recited deed or their representatives, and with the same formalities as the deed which created the estate to be defeated; it must be of a thing defeasible, and all the conditions must be strictly performed before the defeazance can be consummated.

So long as it was the law that a condition in a lease not to alien without license was determined by the first license granted [Dumpor's case, (1603) 1 Sm. L. C.], a defeazane was frequently adopted in order to revive the condition, and so virtually to limit the license to the particular assignment, but the (English) Law of Property Amendment Act, 1859 (22 & 23 Vict. c. 35), replaced by the (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, s. 143, provides that where any license to do any act which without such license would create a forfeiture, or give a right to re-enter, under a condition in a lease, shall be given to any lessee or his assigns, every such license shall, unless otherwise expressed, extend only to the permission actually given, etc.