Gray, Deceased. (Gray v Gray.)

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1894
• Docket Number: (1893. No. 619.)
• Date: 01 January 1894
• Court: King's Bench Division (Ireland)

Gray, Deceased.

Gray

and

Gray.

V.-C.

(1893. No. 619.)

CASES

DETERMINED BY

THE CHANCERY AND PROBATE DIVISIONS

OF

THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN IRELAND,

AND BY

THE COURT OF BANKRUPTCY IN IRELAND,

AND ON APPEAL THEREPROM IN

THE COURT OF APPEAL.

1894.

Land Law (Ireland) Acts, 1881 (sect. 8, sub-sect. 6), and 1887 (sect. 1) — Lease for lives in being — Agreement under Act of 1881, fixing fair rent — Devolution of tenant's interest.

W. G. held a farm of land as lessee under a lease, dated 1st May, 1824, by which the lands were demised to P. F., to hold unto P. F., his heirs, executors, administrators, and permitted assigns, for the lives therein named. One of the cestui qui vie survived W. G. On the 13th February, 1890, an agreement and declaration fixing a fair rent, pursuant to sect. 8, sub-sect. 6, of the Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1881, was entered into between the landlord and W. G., and duly filed in the Court of the Irish Land Commission. W. G., on the 26th November, 1890, mortgaged the said farm, and died on the 15th September, 1891. The farm was sold after his death, under the power of sale in the mortgage, and there remained, after payment of principal and interest due on foot of the mortgage, and arrears of rent, a sum of £500:—

Held, that the agreement under the Act of 1881 could only have been entered into on the basis of a surrender of the lease, and the creation of a tenancy from year to year, at the rent agreed upon, and that the sum of £500, which represented the tenant's interest in the farm, descended as personal estate.

Originating Summons under Ord. LV., R. 4, to determine, without administration of the estate of William Gray, deceased, whether certain lands of which the deceased died possessed formed portion of his real or personal estate.

The deceased died on 15th September, 1891, leaving him surviving his widow the plaintiff, the defendant John E. Gray, his eldest son, and heir-at-law, and the defendant Mary Kathleen Gray, his sole next-of-kin. From an affidavit of the plaintiff, who was administratrix of the deceased, it appeared that William Gray held under Lady Wallace a farm of land situate in the townland of Lurganure, parish of Lisburn, and county of Antrim, under a lease dated 1st May, 1824, made between the Marquis of Hertford and Philip Fletcher, to hold unto him, his heirs, executors, administrators, and permitted assigns, for three lives therein named, one of whom was living at the death of William Gray, at the yearly...