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).
