ATTORNMENT

attornment  (<<schwa>>-t<<schwa>>rn-m<<schwa>>nt),  n.1.  A  tenant’s  agreement  to  hold

the land as the tenant of a new landlord. [Cases: Landlord and  Tenant    15. C.J.S. Landlord and

Tenant  §§  21–22,  277,  279.]  2.  A  constructive  delivery  involving  the  transfer  of  mediate

possession while a third person has immediate possession; esp., a bailee’s acknowledgment that he

or she will hold the goods on behalf of someone other than the bailor. • For the other two types of

constructive delivery, see CONSTITUTUM POSSESSORIUM ; TRADITIO BREVI MANU. —

attorn,vb.

“[Another]  form  of  constructive  delivery  is  that  which  is  known  to  English  lawyers  as

attornment….  The  mediate  possessor  of  a  thing  may  deliver  it  by  procuring  the  immediate

possessor to agree with the transferee to hold it for the future on his account, instead of on account

of the transferor. Thus if I have goods in the warehouse of A and sell them to B, I have effectually

delivered them to B so soon as A has agreed with B to hold them for him, and no longer for me.”

John Salmond, Jurisprudence 306–07 (Glanville L. Williams ed., 10th ed. 1947).[Blacks Law 8th]