Legal Definitions - recontinuance

Recontinuance is a historical legal term that refers to the act of restoring or resuming something that was interrupted or lost. More specifically, it often described the legal process of recovering certain non-physical property rights that had been wrongfully taken away or ceased.

These non-physical rights, sometimes called "incorporeal hereditaments," were inheritable benefits associated with land, such as a right of way across another's property, the right to collect specific rents, or the right to hold a market.

• Imagine a medieval village whose inhabitants had a long-established, inherited right of way across a neighboring lord's fields to reach a vital water source. If the lord suddenly and unlawfully blocked this path, preventing access for several years, a successful legal action by the villagers to achieve recontinuance would mean the restoration of their right to use that path.

  This example illustrates the recovery of a non-physical property right (the right of way) that had been wrongfully denied.

• Consider a historical land grant where a noble family held the inherited right to collect a specific annual payment or a portion of the harvest (known as a rent-charge or tithe) from a particular parcel of land, even though they didn't own the land itself. If, for a period, the landowner unlawfully refused to make these payments, a legal claim for recontinuance would aim to restore the noble family's ability to collect those traditional dues.

  Here, recontinuance refers to the resumption of a historical, inheritable right to receive payments that had been unlawfully interrupted.

• In a historical town, a guild might have possessed a royal charter granting them the exclusive privilege to operate a specific type of trade or hold a particular market on certain days. If a rival group or a local authority unlawfully suppressed this privilege for a period, a successful legal petition or action to achieve recontinuance would restore the guild's exclusive right to conduct their trade or market as originally granted.

  This demonstrates the restoration of a historical privilege or franchise that had been wrongfully ceased or suppressed.