MacArtney, Grantor; Gordon, Grantee

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 15 June 1896
• Date: 15 June 1896
• Court: Land Commission (Ireland)

MacArtney

Grantor

and

Gordon

Grantee (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.

Redemption of Rent (Ireland) Act, 1891 (54 & 55 Vict. c. 57), s. 1 — Redemption price — Suitability of holding for building ground — Probability of its conversion into such.

In determining the sum to be paid for the redemption of a rent, under the Redemption of Rent (Ireland) Act, 1891 (54 & 55 Vict. c. 57), the Land Commission may take into account the suitability of the holding for building ground, or the probability of any portion of it being converted into such.

Appeal by the grantor from an order of Mr. Commissioner Lynch, dated the 28th March, 1896, fixing the redemption price of a fee-farm rent of £300 per annum at £3000 guaranteed land stock, and £250 cash.

The facts of the case and the question involved are stated in the judgment of Bewley, J.

Campbell, Q.C., and Meredith, Q.C. (with them J. H. Moore), for the appellant.

Gordon, Q.C., and Hume, for the respondent.

Bewley, J.:—

This case came before us on an appeal from an order of Mr. Commissioner Lynch, dated the 28th March, 1896, whereby it was ordered that the fee-farm rent of £300 per annum, created by an indenture of fee-farm grant of the 4th May, 1878, should be redeemed, and that the redemption price should be fixed at £3000 guaranteed land stock, and £250 cash. On the evidence submitted to us, the case is one to which the Redemption of Rent (Ireland) Act, 1891 (54 & 55 Vict. c. 57), applies, and the only question we have had to consider is the sufficiency of the redemption price.

The holding out of which the rent issues contains about 148 acres statute measure, and is situate about a mile from the present municipal boundary of Belfast, while part of it adjoins the parliamentary boundary of the borough. No improvements have been made on the holding by Mrs. Gordon or her predecessors in title. Thomas Gordon, to whom the fee-farm grant of the 4th May, 1878, was made, was a butcher, cattle dealer, and dairyman, residing in Belfast. He died in 1880 intestate, and his interest thereupon passed to his only son and heir-at-law Jonathan Gordon. The latter went, with his mother, Ellen Gordon, to Canada shortly after his father's death, and on the 24th July, 1894, having then gone to reside in Utah in...