Keelan v Garvey

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 13 May 1924
• Docket Number: (1923. No. 496.)
• Date: 13 May 1924
• Court: Chancery Division (Irish Free State)

(I. F. S.)

(1923. No. 496.)

Keelan v. Garvey.

KEELAN

and

GARVEY

Statute of Limitations - Husband and wife - Husband in possession of lands as tenant - Husband going away and wife remaining in possession - Acquisition of title by wife as against husband under Statute of Limitations - Real Property Limitation Act, 1833 (3 & 4 Wm. 4, c. 27), sect. 7 -Position of wife under the Married Women's Property Act, 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c. 75), sects. 1, 2, 12 - Wife's title registered "free from equities" - Application to rectify register - Register conclusive evidence of title - Effect of mistake in law as distinguished from mistake of fact in registering title - Local Registration of Title (Ir.) Act, 1891 (54 & 55Vict. c. 66), sects. 29, 30, 34, 92, 93.

Trial of Action.

By this action, which was tried by Molony L.C.J., sitting for the Master of the Rolls, the plaintiff sought a declaration that he was beneficially entitled as owner in fee simple to a farm of land situate in the townland of Corduff, in the County of Monaghan, and a further declaration that Catherine Keelan, his late wife, signed an agreement on the 1st November, 1906, to purchase the land under the Land Purchase Acts as his representative or bailiff, and that she held the lands as trustee for him, and that the defendant, who was her executor, held the lands as such trustee.

The following statement of facts is taken from the judgment of the Lord Chief Justice:—"Patrick Keelan, the father of the plaintiff, Peter Keelan, was tenant of the lands in question, and by his will dated 15th June, 1896, he bequeathed the said lands to the plaintiff, subject to certain charges which have long since ceased to affect the same. He died on the 22nd June, 1896, and the will was duly proved on the 13th November, 1896. On the death of the said Patrick Keelan the plaintiff went into possession of the lands, and on the 30th February, 1897, he married Catherine Ward, who is hereinafter referred to as Catherine Keelan. He had a difference with his wife in November of the same year, with the result that he left the farm. After leaving home he wrote her two letters, one from Dundalk to say that he was going abroad, and the other from Liverpool asking her to sell the oats and to pay some £16 or £17 he owed. From that time he completely went out of her life. He never wrote again to her or went near the place, and he stated in his evidence that he wanted nothing out of the place and had no intention of going near it as long as she was there. Catherine Keelan seems to have been quite capable of taking full control of the place, and was recognized by the landlord as tenant of the farm."

On 1st November, 1906, Catherine Keelan signed an agreement with her landlord to purchase the holding under the Land Purchase Acts, and on 26th November, 1909, she was registered as owner in fee simple subject to equities, and, ultimately, on 10th November, 1919, she was registered free from equities in the circumstances set out in the judgment of the Lord Chief Justice. Catherine Keelan remained in sole possession of the farm until the date of her death, which occurred on 17th...