Desmond, Re; Creed v Kearney

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1944
• Date: 01 January 1944
• Court: High Court

In re the Registration of Title Acts, 1891 and 1942, and In re Cooke's Application

In re Desmond; Creed

and

Kearney

- Compensation -Error in original tenant-purchase agreement -Error incorporated in original registration - No default by registering authority - Folio rectified by Court - Loss occasioned by rectification -Whether compensation payable - Registration of Title Act, 1891 (54 55 Vict., c. 66) s. 23, sub-s. 1 (b), s. 34 - Registration of Title Act, 1942 (No. 26 of 1942), s. 22, sub-s. 1 (a).

- Devolution - Lease for lives or term of years whichever should last the longer - No covenant for renewal - Termination of term before death of all the cestuis que vie -Settlement of lessee's interest under lease - Lands subsequently vested in tenant for life in fee simple under vesting order made by Irish Land Commission - Death of tenant for life - Lands becoming subject to compulsory registration under s. 51 of the Land Act, 1927 - Death of remainderman -Failure to register lands - Whether lands devolved as registered land - Whether tenant for life or remainderman the last purchaser for purposes of determining devolution - Local Registration of Title (Ir.) Act, 1891 (54 55 Vict. c. 66), s. 84 - Land Act, 1927 (No. 19 of 1927), s. 51.

1. Sect. 22 of the Registration of Title Act, 1942, provides that a person who, without default on his part, sustains loss by reason of the rectification by the Court of certain classes of "error in a register made by the registering authority or any of his officers" shall be entitled to compensation out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas. For the purposes of this section it is immaterial whether the error in the registration is one originated by the registering authority or his officers or is an error made in Land Commission proceedings and taken over by the registering authority in performing a statutory duty of registering the lands. The section is not limited to errors originated by the registering authority or his officers, nor to their clerical or mechanical errors, but includes existing errors incorporated in the registration. So held by Maguire J.

1. Sect. 51 of the Land Act, 1927, provides:—"Registration under the Local Registration of Title (Ir.) Act, 1891, of the ownership of freehold land shall be compulsory in the following cases, that is to say . . . . (b) where the land has been or is vested by the Irish Land Commission in a purchaser for cash; . . . . and the provisions of the Local Registration...