Irish Land Commission v Kearney

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1940
• Date: 01 January 1940
• Court: Supreme Court

(S.C.),

Irish Land Commission

and

Kearney

Instalments - Amount payable - Former owner of lands repurchasing portion thereof from Land Commission - Annuity fixed, in respect of such portion - Whether full amount of annuity instalments payable - Whether purchaser entitled to 50 per cent. remission allowed by s. 19, sub-s. 2 (b), of the land Act, 1933 Land Act, 1923 (No. 42 of 1923), ss. 32 and 35; Land Act, 1933 (No. 38 of 1933), s. 19, sub-ss.1 and 2.

1. Sect. 19, sub-s. 2, of the Land Act, 1933, provides that ". . . the amount payable by the purchaser in respect of each instalment of any . . . purchase annuity . . . (other than a purchase annuity in repayment of an advance made to an owner of land for the repurchase of such land otherwise than under s. 11 of the Land Act, 1927) shall . . . be fifty per cent. and no more of the full amount of such instalment." K. was owner of certain lands which the Land Commission acquired under s. 24 of the Land Act, 1923; the appointed day was the 1st February, 1935. A prior application by K. to purchase the lands under s. 11 of the Land Act, 1927, had been refused and K. had refused an offer by the Land Commission to sell him portion of the lands. K.remained in occupation for several months after the appointed day, until he was ejected by the sheriff. The day after he had been ejected, he accepted the Land Commission's original offer and signed an agreement to purchase portion of the lands for £497, repayable by an annuity of £23 12s. 2d.; this agreement was entitled "Undertaking by an owner to repurchase lands in his occupation from the Irish Land Commission." K. was notified, before he signed the agreement, that the full amount of the annuity instalments would be payable. K. refused to pay more than 50 per cent. of the instalments and was sued in...