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Civil bill ejectment for deserted tenements.
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78. In case it shall happen that a half year’s rent shall be in arrear of any lands or premises holden under any lease or other contract of tenancy, or from year to year, and the tenant thereof shall desert or otherwise abandon such lands or premises, leaving the same unoccupied, or the lands or the greater portion of them uncultivated or unemployed, and without sufficient distress, contrary to the course of husbandry, or carry off the stock or crop thereof, it shall be lawful for the landlord thereof to proceed by civil bill ejectment before the chairman of the county in which the lands or any part of them shall be situate, to recover the possession of them; . . . such landlord having first obtained a certificate of desertion in the manner herein-after provided, and serving a copy of the same, together with such civil bill process, on the tenant against whom such proceedings shall be had, in the manner herein-before provided in respect of ejectments for nonpayment of rent, requiring such tenant or other person to appear to answer the bill of the said landlord, praying to be put into possession thereof; and it shall be lawful for the chairman, on proof of the due execution of such certificate by any person who may have witnessed the execution of the same, and that one half year’s rent of the said premises was due to the landlord when such certificate was granted, and that such civil bill process and copy of such certificate were duly served in manner aforesaid, and upon hearing the tenant in case he shall appear, and such evidence as he may offer, to decree the said landlord to be put into possession of the said premises.
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