Hines, Landlord; Bell and Others, Tenants

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 16 March 1897
• Date: 16 March 1897
• Court: Land Commission (Ireland)

Hines

Landlord

and

Bell and Others

Tenants (1).

Land Com.

CASES

DETERMINED BY

THE QUEEN'S BENCH AND EXCHEQUER DIVISIONS

OF

THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN IRELAND,

AND BY

THE IRISH LAND COMMISSION,

AND ON APPEAL THEREFROM IN

THE COURT OF APPEAL,

AND BY

THE COURT FOR CROWN CASES RESERVED.

1897.

Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1887, s. 7 — Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1896, s. 12; s. 50, sub-s. 2 — Resumption of possession of holding by landlord — Future tenancy — Reinstatement.

The reinstatement required by section 50, sub-section (2) Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1896, 59 & 60 Vict. c. 47, to entitle a tenant, possession of whose holding has been resumed by the landlord, to be deemed a present tenant, is not a reinstatement in the holding but in the tenancy existing prior to the eviction.

A superior landlord having recovered judgment in an ejectment for non-payment of rent against his immediate tenant, the notices prescribed by sect. 7 of the Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1887, were duly served on the sub-tenants in occupation. After the time for redemption had expired a writ of possession was issued, and on its execution the physical possession of the lands constituting the holdings of some of the sub-tenants was not disturbed, but they signed agreements in writing to become tenants to the superior landlord of their former holdings, which were therein described as being then in the landlord's possession:—

Held, that the landlord should be treated as having resumed possession of these holdings within the meaning of sect. 50, sub-sect. (2), of the Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1896.

Motion on behalf of the landlord to have notices to fix fair rents served by Bell and five other tenants dismissed on the ground that the tenants were future tenants.

Campbell, Q.C., and J. H. Shaw, for the landlord.

Henry, Q.C., and Horner, for the tenant.

The facts are fully stated in the judgment of Bewley, J.

Bewley, J.:—

These six cases came before the Court on a motion on behalf of the landlord that the several originating notices to fix fair rents

served by the tenants should be dismissed, on the ground that the tenants are respectively future tenants.

In three cases, viz. those in which Robert John Bell, Andrew Roulston, and Robert Moffatt are the tenants, it is conceded that the motion cannot be resisted; but in the three cases in which George Roulston, James Given, and David Roulston are the tenants it is contended that, having regard to the provisions of the recent Land Act, the tenants are entitled to maintain their applications to have fair rents fixed.

This contention raises some...