(Received the assent of the Governor General on the 27th March 1855.)
An Act relating to mesne profits and to improvements made by holders under defective titles in cases to which the English Law is applicable.
Whereas it is expedient, in cases to which the English Law is applicable, to limit the liability for mesne profits, and to secure to bon fide holders under defective titles the value of improvements made by them; It is enacted as follows:
No person shall be chargeable with any rents or profits of any immoveable property which he has bon fide paid over to any person of whom he bon fide held the same, notwithstanding it may afterwards appear that the person to whom such payment was made had no right to receive such rents or profits.
If any person shall erect any building or make an improvement upon any lands held by him bon fide in the belief that he had an estate in fee simple, or other absolute estate, and such person, his heirs or assigns, or his or their under-tenants, be evicted from such lands by any person having a better title, the person who erected the building or made the improvement, his heirs or assigns, shall be entitled either to have the value of the building or improvement so erected or made during such holding and in such belief, estimated and paid or secured to him or them, or, at the option of the person causing the eviction, to purchase the interest of such person in the lands at the value thereof, irrespective of the value of such building or improvement. Provided that the amount to be paid or secured in respect of such building or improvement shall be the estimated value of the same at the time of such eviction.
Nothing in this Act contained shall extend to any case to which the English Law is not applicable.