Logan and Schweppe v Donohue

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1939
• Date: 01 January 1939
• Court: Supreme Court

Logan v. Donohue. Schweppe v. Donohue

JOHN LOGAN

Applicant

and

PATRICK DONOHUE

Respondent.

and

PETER SCHWEPPE

Applicant

and

SAME, Respondent (1)

High Court.

Supreme Court.

Landlord and tenant - Rent Restriction Acts - Decontrol - House purchased with clear possession - House situated in Dublin - Both standard rent and rateable value exceeding the amount of applicability of the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act, 1923, as amended - Purchaser letting part of house to tenants - Part of house previously let by former owner of house - Application of Acts - Whether part of house decontrolled - Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act,1923 (No. 19 of 1923), sect. 3, sub-sects. 1 and 2 - Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act, 1926 (No. 24 of 1926), sect. 4;sect. 5, sub-sect. 1 - No. 5 of 1928, sect. 2 - No. 15 of 1929, sects. 2and 3 - No. 18 of 1930, sects. 2 and 3.

The Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act, 1923 (hereinafter referred to as the "Principal Act"), as amended, provides that the Act "shall, in respect of any particular house or part of a house let as a separate dwelling

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (b) apply to such house or part of a house if either the amount of the standard rent or the rateable value of such house or part of a house does not exceed—

  • (i) in the county borough of Dublin and the urban districts in the Dublin Metropolitan Area £30. . . ."

The Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act, 1926, sect. 5, sub-sect. 1, provides:—

"(1) Whore the landlord of a dwellinghouse to which the Principal Act applies and of which both the standard rent and the rateable value exceed £20 is in possession of the whole of the dwellinghouse at the passing of this Act, or comes into possession of the whole of the dwellinghouse at any time after the passing of this Act, then from and after the passing of this Act or from and after the date when the landlord subsequently comes into possession, as the case may be, the Principal Act shall save as hereinafter mentioned cease to apply to such dwellinghouse."

D. purchased a house in Dublin in September, 1932, with clear possession, and in Juno, 1935, he let two rooms on the second floor to two tenants, at the weekly rents of 11s. and 10s. respectively These tenants applied to the Circuit Court Judge to have their standard rents fixed. At the hearing of the applications it was proved that the former owner of the house had in the year 1924 let the rooms on the second floor to a tenant and the standard rent had been fixed by the Circuit Court Judge. He had fixed the standard rent of the whole house, as on the 8th September, 1924, at £48 and had apportioned that sum as to £9 per annum on the second floor, and the balance on the remainder of the house, which consisted of the basement, the ground floor, and the first and third floors, all of which were let to different tenants. The valuation of the whole house was £31 and the valuations of each of the two rooms was £3 10s. 0d. and £3 1s. 0d. respectively. D. contended that the Acts had ceased to apply to the house, and therefore that the two tenants of the rooms on the second floor were not entitled to have the standard rents fixed.

Held by the Supreme Court, affirming the High Court, that each of the two rooms on the second floor still remained subject to the provisions of the Acts as each of them constituted a dwellinghouse to which the Principal Act applied and as the standard rent and rateable value of each of them did not exceed £20, sect. 5, sub-sect. 1, of the Act of 1926 did not apply to them and the tenants were entitled to have the standard rents fixed.

Donnelly v. O'Neill, [1935] I. R. 286, distinguished.

Two Appeals from the Circuit Court which were heard together.

On the 5th November, 1932, Patrick Donohue purchased the house, No. 2 Belvidere Place, Dublin, from John P. Cotter, obtaining clear possession. In June, 1935, Donohue let the front room on the second floor to John Logan at the weekly rent of 11s. and he let the back room on the same floor to Peter Schweppe at the weekly rent of 10s.

In May, 1936, both Logan and Schweppe made separate applications to the Circuit Court for an order under sect. 2, sub-sect. 1, of the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act, 1923, determining the standard rent of each of their rooms.

Evidence was given that in 1924 the second floor (3 rooms) was let by the former owner of the house, the said John P. Cotter, to Patrick J. McCann, who had applied to the Circuit Court for an order determining the standard rent of the second floor, and the Circuit Court Judge (Judge Drumgoole) on the 10th December, 1924, had made the following order:—

"The Court doth order and declare pursuant to the above Act [the Act of 1923], that the standard rent of the dwellinghouse situate at No. 2 Belvidere Place in the County of the City of Dublin calculated in accordance with the provisions of sect...