Does a defendant have a right to recover from a plaintiff in a claim for damages arising out of a breach of a lease?

Counsel for the applicant also made reference to Jacques v. Harrison (1884), 12 Q.B.D. 165. In that case the plaintiff had sued the defendant in an action for recovery of lands based upon forfeitures arising out of the defendant’s breach of two covenants in his lease. The persons really interested in the premises were not the defendants but its equitable mortgagees who were not made parties to the action. The defendant allowed judgment to go by default and a writ of possession to issue under which the plaintiff took possession. It appeared that if the defendant had defended or the equitable mortgagees had defended the plaintiff would not have had a right to recover.