noun
definition
The legal right of a landlord to seize the property of a tenant in the event of nonpayment of rent.
Examples of distraint in a Sentence
An unwarranted seizure for debt was fined, as was the distraint of a working ox.
Distraint on a debtor's corn was forbidden by the Code; not only must the creditor give it back, but his illegal action forfeited his claim altogether.
Moreover, after the knight's liability to personal service in war had been modified in the 12th century by the scutage system, it became necessary in the first quarter of the r3th to compel landowners to take up the knighthood which in theory they should have coveted as an honour - a compulsion which was soon systematically enforced (Distraint of Knighthood, 1278), and became a recognized source of royal income.
If he failed to pay his rent, however excessive, his property was rendered liable to distraint and his person to imprisonment.
At one assembly there about a century before Christ, a uniform law of distraint for the whole of Ireland was adopted on the motion of Sen, son of Aige.
For this amount the guilty person, and in his default his kindred, became legally debtor, and the injured person or family became entitled to recover the amount like a civil debt by distraint, if not paid voluntarily.
The Code of 1650 (Connecticut) taxed all persons for its support, provided for the collection of church taxes, if necessary, by civil distraint, and forbade the formation of new churches without the consent of the general court.
In cases of illegal distraint, the owner of the goods and the distrainor will be liable for wrongful interference with the goods.