Connolly v Keating (No. 2)

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 05 May 1903
• Docket Number: (1893. No. 1026.)
• Date: 05 May 1903
• Court: Chancery Division (Ireland)

Connolly

and

Keating (No. 2).

M. R.

(1893. No. 1026.)

CASES

DETERMINED BY

THE CHANCERY DIVISION

OF

THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN IRELAND.

AND BY

THE IRISH LAND COMMISSION,

AND ON APPEAL THEREFROM IN

THE COURT OF APPEAL.

1903.

Vendor and purchaser — Sale by Court — Damage to property after sale — Claim for compensation after conveyance.

A purchaser of house property sold by auction by order of the Court, and in possession of a caretaker appointed by the receiver, complained in his requisitions on title of damage to the premises after the sale, and claimed compensation. He afterwards got possession, and accepted a conveyance on a subsequent date, but did not withdraw his claim for compensation:—

Held, that the acceptance of a conveyance was not, in the circumstances of the case, a bar to the claim for compensation, and that as proper care had not been taken of the premises by the receiver between the date of the sale and the time when the purchaser took possession, the purchaser was entitled to compensation.

This was an application on behalf of Patrick Mulcahy, the purchaser of the premises known as the Glengall Arms, in the town of Cahir, county of Tipperary, being lot 4 of the property sold by order of the Court in this action, that out of the purchase-money paid into Court for the said premises he might be allowed a proper sum for compensation in respect of waste and dilapidations occurring to and upon the premises after the sale and prior to possession thereof being given to the purchaser, and for loss arising from delay in the completion of the sale.

The premises formed part of the estate of Daniel Collins, deceased, and were held in fee-simple. They were described in the particulars as the Glengall Arms, and looked on as the hotel of Cahir, situated in the best part of the town. At the rere of the hotel were two large lock-up yards and a garden, also a large store, which would let at £20 per annum, the garden being an excellent one. It was stated that immediate possession of the lot would be given to the purchaser. The premises were put up for sale by auction in the town of Tipperary on November 2nd, 1901, when Patrick Mulcahy was the highest bidder at the sum of £1350. The sale to him was confirmed by the Court on November 7th, 1901, he having, in compliance with the conditions of sale, paid one-fourth of the purchase-money to the auctioneer on the date of the auction, and on November 19th, 1901, the balance of the purchase-money was lodged in Court pursuant to the seventh condition, which provided that each purchaser was to pay the amount of his purchase-money (after deducting the amount paid as a deposit) into Court to the credit of the cause, on or before the 19th day of November, 1901, and if the same was not then paid, then the purchaser was to pay interest on his purchase-money at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum from the 19th November, 1901, to the day on which the sum was actually paid. Upon payment of the purchase-money in manner aforesaid the purchaser was to be entitled to possession, or to the rents and profits as from the said 19th day of November, 1901, down to which time all outgoings were to be paid by the vendor. The eighth condition provided that if any error or misstatement should appear to have been made in the particulars, such error or misstatement was not to annul the sale, or entitle the purchaser to be discharged from his purchase, but a compensation was to be made to or by the purchaser, as the case might be, and the amount of such compensation was to be settled by the Judge at Chambers. The fifteenth condition provided that if the purchaser should make any objection or requisition which the vendors should be unable or unwilling to comply with, the vendors should be at liberty, with the sanction of the Judge, and notwithstanding any intermediate...