Cork County Council and Burke v Commissioners of Public Works and Others

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 02 March 1945
• Date: 02 March 1945
• Court: Supreme Court

(S.C.),

Cork County Council and Burke

and

Commissioners of Public Works and Others

- Small dwellings - Formerly the property of the Crown - Crown property transferred to State - Prerogative - Crown not liable for rates - Crown not bound by statute unless by express words or necessary implication - Meaning of "necessary implication" - Whether State entitled to similar rights - Claim for rates by local authority - Constitution of the Irish Free State, Arts.12, 51, 73 and 80 - Constitution of 1937, Arts. 6, 10, clauses 1 and 2, Art. 49 - Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act, 1923, s. 4, sub-s. 1 (e) s. 16 - Local Government (Rates on Small Dwellings) Act, 1928, s. 4, sub-ss. 1 and 6.

Prior to 1921, the Crown were the owners of certain small houses on Haulbowline Island in Cork Harbour which were used as workmen's dwellings in connection with the Royal Dockyard there. As Crown property these houses were exempt from rates. Under the terms of the Treaty of 1921, these houses were transferred from the Crown to the Irish Free State, and in 1923, possession was handed over to the Commissioners of Public Works, as agents for the State. The Cork County Council claimed rates on these houses, and their claim not having been paid, they sued in the Circuit Court the said Commissioners as rated owners, or as "owners" under the Local Government (Rates on Small Dwellings) Act, 1928, or, where the houses were unoccupied, as the landlords of the houses, under s. 16 of the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act, 1923. They also joined the Minister for Finance as defendant, as...