Lynham v Butler Sullivan

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1925
• Date: 01 January 1925
• Court: Supreme Court (Irish Free State)

S. C.,

Lynham

and

Butler Sullivan

Expiration of lease - Order declaring the holding to be one to which the Land Act, 1923, applies-Alteration in the relationship of landlord and tenant - Crucial date - Position of tenant -Rights conferred - Estoppel - Land Act, 1923 (No. 42 of 1923), ss. 19, 20, s. 24 (1), s. 70, s. 73 (2).

Section 24 (1) of the Land Act, 1923 (No. 42 of 1923), passed on August 9th, 1923, provides:—"Subject to the provisions of this Act and notwithstanding anything contained in any other enactment, all tenanted land wherever situated . . . shall by virtue of this Act vest in the Land Commission on the appointed day, in the like manner and with the like consequences as if vesting orders under the Land Purchase Acts had been made on the appointed day in respect thereof in pursuance of subsequent purchase agreements entered into by the Land Commission with the respective owners of the lowest interest in the land constituting an interest saleable under the Land Purchase Acts, at the price fixed by or under this Act." M., being tenant for life of certain lands, demised them for the term of her life to the defendant. Upon M.'sdeath on August 22nd, 1924, the plaintiff, being entitled in remainder in fee-simple, brought an action to recover possession of the lands. During M.'s lifetime the defendant had obtained an order from Wylie, J., declaring that the lands constituted a holding to which the Land Act, 1923, applied. "The appointed day" mentioned in s. 24 (1) of the Act had not been fixed:—Held by the Supreme Court (Kennedy, C.J., and FitzGibbon, J.; Johnston, J., dissenting), that lands which, at the date of the passing of the Act, are comprised in a holding within the operation of the purchase and sale provisions of the Act, do not cease to be within those provisions by the...