Harris and Others v Minister for Finance
| Jurisdiction | Ireland |
| Court | High Court |
| Judgment Date | 24 June 1966 |
| Date | 24 June 1966 |
| Docket Number | (1963. No. 1801 P.) |
Landlord and tenant - Rates - Fee farm grant - Covenant by grantee to pay"clear rent over and above all and all manner of taxes charges and impositions"- Lands exempt from rating as being devoted to public purposes - Rates paid by grantors on half-rent - Whether grantors entitled to be indemnified by grantee against payment of rates assessed on the half-rent - Poor Relief (Ir.) Act, 1838 (1 & 2 Vict., c. 56), s. 63 - Valuation (Ir.) Act,1852 (15 & 16 Vict., c. 63), s. 12 - Valuation (Ir.) Act, 1854 (17 & 18Vict., c. 8), s. 2 - Cork City Management (Amendment) Act, 1941 (No. 5 of1941), ss. 16 and 19 - State Property Act, 1954 (No. 25 of 1954), s. 5.
Certain lands were granted by the plaintiffs' predecessors in title to the defendant's predecessor in title by a fee farm grant, dated the 1st September 1862. The reddendum provided that the rent of £97 2s. 9d. was to be "clear rent over and above all and all manner of taxes charges and impositions whatsoever." The grantee covenanted that he "should and would well and truly pay or cause to be paid unto the grantors the said reserved yearly fee farm rent of £97 2s. 9d. in the manner thereinbefore appointed for the payment thereof over and above all taxes and deductions as aforesaid." In the year 1852 the lands were marked in the general valuation list as exempt from rating as being devoted to public purposes, and at the same time the plaintiffs' predecessors in title were entered on the valuation list as the occupiers of a rateable hereditament, namely, one half of the rent reserved by the fee farm grant, i.e., £48 10s. 0d. In 1941, the said valuation was reduced to £16 3s. 4d. The plaintiffs and their predecessors in title, having paid the rates due in respect of the said valuation up to and including the year 1963-64, issued a plenary summons in which they claimed a declaration that they were entitled to be indemnified by the defendant against the payment of rates assessed and to be assessed on the half-rent. They also claimed the sum of £471 5s. 1d., the amount paid for such rates from 1952 to the date of the commencement of the action.
Held by Budd J., refusing the relief claimed and dismissing the proceedings, 1, that the words, "all taxes charges and impositions," have a judicially established meaning which makes them applicable to things naturally proceeding out of, and charges on, the land, and that they do not apply to the liability to pay the rates assessed on the half-rent in this case;
2, That the addition of words, such as "all" or "all manner" or "all and all manner," prior to the words, "taxes charges and impositions," has only the effect of qualifying the latter expression in its established meaning.
Palmer v. Power, 4 I. C. L. R. 191 and Murray and Others v. Minister for Finance, [1928] I. R. 635 followed.
Dictum of Dixon J. in Representative Church Body v. Dublin Board of Assistance and Others, [1948] I. R. 287, at p. 294, applied.
Plenary Summons.
The plaintiffs sought a declaration, as well as other relief, that on the true construction of certain clauses in a fee farm grant, dated the 1st September, 1862, they were entitled, as the persons now entitled to the grantors' interest in the said fee farm grant, to be indemnified by the defendant, being the person in whom the grantees' interest thereunder is now vested, against the payment of rates assessed or to be assessed on the half-rent. The facts, which were not in dispute, appear fully in paras. 1 to 6 of the statement of claim, which, as amended, were as follows:—
"1. By indenture of fee farm grant dated the 1st September, 1862, and made between William Hargrave, William Deane Thomas Deane Notter, Edward Pope Deane, Richard Henry Notter and Jane Kearns Monroe (otherwise Deane otherwise Tanner) wife of Charles Ross Monroe of the first part Charles Ross Monroe of the second part and Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the War Department of the third part the parties of the first part thereto granted unto Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for War his successors and assigns All that piece or plot of ground part of the lands of Rathmore containing five acres and one rood statute measure forming part of the Cork Barrack Ground situate on the south-east side of the said Barrack Ground in the Parish of Saint Ann's Shandon and City of Cork To Hold the same unto Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for War his successors and assigns for ever in trust for Her Majesty her heirs and successors for the service of the War Department or for such other Public Service as Her Majesty her heirs or successors should by Order in Council from time to time for ever direct yielding and paying therefor and thereout unto the grantors their heirs and assigns the yearly fee farm rent of £97.2.9d. clear rent over and above all and all manner of taxes charges and impositions whatsoever. And by the same indenture the said Principal Secretary of State for himself his successors and assigns for and on behalf of Her Majesty her heirs and successors covenanted with the grantors that he and his successors for the time being for and on behalf of Her said Majesty her heirs and successors should and would well and truly pay or cause to be paid unto the grantors or some or one of them their heirs and assigns the said reserved yearly fee farm rent of £97.2.9d. in the manner thereinbefore appointed for the payment thereof over and above all taxes and deductions whatsoever as aforesaid.
2. All the estate and interest of the grantors in the said hereditaments and premises is now vested in the plaintiffs.
3. The said hereditaments and premises were so acquired by Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for War for use as a military barracks and have been so used ever since and are now State lands vested in the defendant under and by virtue of the provisions of s.5 of the State Property Act, 1954.
4. In the year 1852 the said hereditaments and premises were marked in the general valuation list as exempt from rating under s.2 of the Valuation (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1854, as being devoted to public purposes and at the same time the plaintiffs' predecessors in title were entered on the valuation list as the occupiers of a rateable hereditament, namely, one half of the rent reserved by the said fee farm grant the valuation whereof was £48.10.0, pursuant to s.12 of the Valuation (Ireland) Act, 1852. The said valuation was reduced and adjusted in the year 1941 to the sum of £16.3.4. pursuant to the provisions of ss. 16 and 19 of the Cork City Management (Amendment) Act, 1941, and the plaintiffs and their predecessors in title have been rated in respect of the said valuation since the year 1941 pursuant to s. 63 of the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act, 1838.
5. At all times the rates in respect of the said valuation have been demanded from and paid by the plaintiffs and their predecessors in title up to and including the said rates in respect of the year 1963/4.
6. The plaintiffs claim that they are entitled by virtue of the provisions and the covenants by the grantee contained in the said fee farm grant to be indemnified against payment of all rates assessed and to be assessed on the said half-rent of £48.10.0 by the defendant and to be paid by the defendant the amount necessary to recoup to the plaintiffs all monies paid by them and their predecessors in title in respect of the rates on the said half-rent since the year 1952 up to the commencement of this action, particulars whereof are hereinafter stated."
Cur. adv. vult.
| Budd J. :— |
The facts on which the plaintiffs' claim is based in these proceedings are not in issue and are accepted as correctly stated in the statement of claim as amended as follows. [His Lordship read paras. 1 to 6 of the statement of claim, and continued]:—
The Cork City Management (Amendment) Act, 1941, provided (s. 16, sub-s. 1) that, save as in the Act otherwise provided, all rates which before the 1st day of April, 1941, were leviable in the Borough should, on that date, cease to be leviable. Sub-sect. 2 provided for the assessment and levy by the Corporation of a rate, to be called "the municipal rate," for the purpose of supplying any deficiency in the municipal fund. Sub-sect. 3 provided that subject to the provisions of the Act, the law for the time being in force in relation to the making, assessment, levying, collection and recovery of the poor rate should apply respectively to the making, assessment, levying, collection and recovery of the municipal rate by the Corporation. It would thus appear that, as regards the rateability of the half-rent of premises used for the public service and the assessment of the lessor in respect thereof, the municipal rate stands in the same position as the poor rate, a relevant factor to be borne in mind in considering the applicability to this case of decisions later referred to.
The plaintiffs claim a declaration that, as the persons now entitled to the grantors' interest in the said fee farm grant, they are entitled to be indemnified by the defendant (being the person in whom the grantees' interest thereunder is now vested) against the payment of rates assessed and to be
assessed on the half-rent issuing out of the premises comprised in the fee farm grant. The plaintiffs further claim payment from the defendant of the sum of £471 5s. 1d., being the amount paid by them and their predecessors in title in respect of the rates on the said half-rent since the year 1952 up to the commencement of the action. This amount is...To continue reading
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