of this duty, he will be liable to a third party who, while visiting a tenant in the course of business, is injured by its defective condition (Miller v. Hancock, 1893, 2 Q.B. 177). No such liability would be involved in a mere licence to the tenants to use a part of the building not essential to the enjoyment of their flats. (iii.) In case of the destruction of the flat by fire, the rent abates pro tanto and an apportionment is made; pari ratione, where a flat is totally destroyed, the rent abates altogether (Clode, p. 14); unless the tenant has entered into an express and unqualified agreement to pay rent, when he will remain liable till the expiration of his tenancy. (iv.) Where the agreements for letting the flats in a single building are in common form, an agreement by the lessor not to depart from the kind of building there indicated may be held to be implied. Thus an injunction has been granted to restrain the conversion into a club of a large part of a building, adapted to occupation in residential flats, at the instance of a tenant who held under an agreement in a common form binding the tenants to rules suitable only for residential purposes (Hudson v. Cripps, 1896, 1 Ch. 265). (v.) The porter is usually appointed and paid by the landlord, who is liable for his acts while engaged on his general duties; while engaged on any special duty for any tenant the porter is the servant of the latter, who is liable for his conduct within the scope of his employment.
In Scots law the rights and obligations of the lessors and lessees of flats, or—as they are called—“flatted houses,” spring partly from the exclusive possession by each lessee of his own flat, partly from the common interest of all in the tenement as a whole. The “law of the tenement” may be thus summed up. The solum on which the flatted house stands, the area in front and the back ground are presumed to belong to the owner of the lowest floor or the owners of each floor severally, subject to the common right of the other proprietors to prevent injury to their flats, especially by depriving them of light. The external walls belong to each owner in so far as they enclose his flat; but the other owners can prevent operations on them which would endanger the security of the building. The roof and uppermost storey belong to the highest owner or owners, but he or they may be compelled to keep them in repair and to refrain from injuring them. The gables are common to the owner of each flat, so far as they bound his property, and to the owner of the adjoining house; but he and the other owners in the building have cross rights of common interest to prevent injury to the stability of the building. The floor and ceiling of each flat are divided in ownership by an ideal line drawn through the middle of the joists; they may be used for ordinary purposes, but may not be weakened or exposed to unusual risk from fire. The common passages and stairs are the common property of all to whose premises they form an access, and the walls which bound them are the common property of those persons and of the owners on their farther side.
In the United States the term “apartment-house” is applied to what in England are called flats. The general law is the same as in England. The French Code Civil provides (Art. 664) that where the different storeys of a house belong to different owners the main walls and roof are at the charge of all the owners, each one in proportion to the value of the storey belonging to him. The proprietor of each storey is responsible for his own flooring. The proprietor of the first storey makes the staircase which leads to it, the proprietor of the second, beginning from where the former ended, makes the staircase leading to his and so on. There are similar provisions in the Civil Codes of Belgium (Art. 664), Quebec (Art. 521), St Lucia (Art. 471).
Authorities.—English Law: Clode, Law of Tenement-Houses and Flats (London, 1889); Daniels, Manual of the Law of Flats (London, 1905). Scots Law: Erskine, Principles of the Law of Scotland (20th ed., Edinburgh, 1903); Bell, Principles of the Law of Scotland (10th ed., Edinburgh, 1899). American Law: Bouvier, Law Dicty. (Boston and London, 1897). Foreign Laws: Burge, Foreign and Colonial Laws (2nd ed., London, 1906). (A. W. R.)
FLATBUSH, formerly a township of Kings county, Long
Island, New York, U.S.A., annexed to Brooklyn in 1894, and
after the 1st of January 1898 a part of the borough of Brooklyn,
New York City. The first settlement was made here by the
Dutch about 1651, and was variously called “Midwout,” “Midwoud”
and “Medwoud” (from the Dutch words, med, “middle”
and woud, “wood”) for about twenty years, when it became more
commonly known as Vlachte Bos (vlachte, “wooded”; bos,
“plain”) or Flackebos, whence, by further corruption, the
present name. Farming was the chief occupation of the early
settlers. On the 23rd of August 1776 the village was occupied
by General Cornwallis’s division of the invading force under Lord
Howe, and on the 27th, at the disastrous battle of Long Island
(or “battle of Flatbush,” as it is sometimes called), “Flatbush
Pass,” an important strategic point, was vigorously defended by
General Sullivan’s troops.
FLAT-FISH (Pleuronectidae), the name common to all those
fishes which swim on their side, as the halibut, turbot, brill,
plaice, flounder, sole, &c. The side which is turned towards the
bottom, and in some kinds is the right, in others the left, is
generally colourless, and called “blind,” from the absence of an
eye on this side. The opposite side, which is turned upwards and
towards the light, is variously, and in some tropical species even
vividly, coloured, both eyes being placed on this side of the head.
All the bones and muscles of the upper side are more strongly
developed than on the lower; but it is noteworthy that these
fishes when hatched, and for a short time afterwards, are symmetrical
like other fishes.
Assuming that they are the descendants of symmetrical fishes, the question has been to determine which group of Teleosteans may be regarded as the ancestors of the flat-fishes. The old notion that they are only modified Gadids (Anacanthini) was the result of the artificial classification of the past and is now generally abandoned. The condition of the caudal fin, which in the cod tribe departs so markedly from that of ordinary Teleosteans, is in itself a sufficient reason for dismissing the idea of the homocercal flat-fishes being derived from the Anacanthini, and the whole structure of the two types of fishes speaks against such an assumption. On the other hand it has been shown, as noticed in the article Dory, that considerable, deep-seated resemblances exist between the Zeidae or John Dories and the more generalized of the Pleuronectidae; and that a fossil fish from the Upper Eocene, Amphistium paradoxum, evidently allied to the Zeidae, appears to realize in every respect the prototype of the Pleuronectidae before they had assumed the asymmetry which characterizes them as a group. In accordance with these views the flat-fishes are placed by G. A. Boulenger in the suborder Acanthopterygii, in a division called Zeorhombi. The three families included in that division can be traced back to the Upper Eocene, and their common ancestors will probably be found in the Upper Cretaceous associated with the Berycidae, to which they will no doubt prove to be related. The very young are transparent and symmetrical, with an eye on each side, and swim in a vertical position. As they grow, the eye of one side moves by degrees to the other side, where it becomes the upper eye. If at that age the dorsal fin does not extend to the frontal region, the migrating eye simply moves over the line of the profile, temporarily assuming the position which it preserves in some of the less modified genera, such as Psettodes; in other genera, the dorsal fin has already extended to the snout before the migration takes place, and the eye, passing between the frontal bone and the tissues supporting the fin, appears to make its way from side to side through the head, as was believed by some of the earlier observers.
About 500 species of flat-fish are known, mostly marine, a few species allied to the sole being confined to the fresh waters of South America, West Africa, and the Malay Archipelago, whilst a few others, such as the English flounder, ascend streams, though still breeding in the sea. They range from the Arctic Circle to the southern coasts of the southern hemisphere and may occur at great depths. (G. A. B.)
FLATHEADS, a tribe of North American Indians of Salishan
stock. They formerly occupied the mountains of north-western
Montana and the country around. They have always been
friendly to the whites. Curiously enough they have not the
