Mansfield, Tenant; Congreve, Landlord

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 24 July 1894
• Date: 24 July 1894
• Court: Court of Appeal (Ireland)

Mansfield,

Tenant

and

Congreve,

Landlord (1).

Appeal.

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.

1895.

Demesne land — Tenancy from year to year — Land formerly demesne — Undemesning.

A holding consisting of 40 acres, Irish plantation measure, and a dwelling-house and offices, were let to a tenant by lease, dated the 24th April, 1857, for twenty-one years, at the rent of £110. The lessee was a farmer, holding another farm of 90 acres within 4 miles, and the lease contained no special clauses. The landlord owned another property, which comprised a large mansion and fine demesne, about 10 miles lower down the river Suir. In some of the previous documents dealing with the property the lands were described as “the demesne of L.,” and in 1822 the lands, described as demesne lands, were let by an owner in fee for three lives or twenty-one years. After the lease expired the holding was unlet for some years. It was then let to several successive yearly tenants. In 1827 it had been put in settlement along with various other denominations of land, which were let to tenants, but the settlement

did not comprise the mansion-house and demesne, and did not describe the holding as demesne:—

Held (reversing the decision of the Land Commission), that the holding had become undemesned.

The farm in this case was held by the tenant under a tenancy from year to year after the expiration of a lease for twenty-one years, dated the 24th April, 1857. By that lease John Congreve demised to Edward Mansfield that part of the lands of Landscape then in the possession of Edward Mansfield, containing forty acres plantation measure, together with the dwelling-house and offices erected thereon, reserving to the lessor, mines, minerals, timber, and other trees, situate in the barony of Upperthird and county of Waterford for twenty-one years from the 25th March, 1856. The house was a good but old-fashioned building, and at the date of the lease was in bad repair; but the tenant expended some money in putting the buildings in repair. The total valuation of the holding was £84, which included £15 as the value of the buildings. There were no special covenants or clauses in the lease; the tenant was a farmer holding another farm of ninety acres within four miles. The Congreves were landed proprietors who owned a considerable amount of property, and they had their family seat at Mount Congreve lower down the Suir. The prior history of the holding, so far as it was proved, was the following:—By indenture dated the 8th November, 1792, John Congreve the elder, therein described as of Mount Congreve, and John Congreve the younger, therein described as of Landscape, granted to John Cook a rentcharge of £95 a-year out of the lands of Cappagh. John Congreve the younger made his will on the 10th March, 1801, and thereby gave his house and lands of Landscape to Ambrose Ussher Congreve his brother, for life, with remainder to his eldest son on attaining twenty-one. He was described in the will as of Landscape.

By an agreement, dated the 22nd November, 1801 (a memorial of which was produced), Christian Ewing agreed to take a lease of “the house and demesne of Landscape,” including the lawn and woodlands of Cappagh, for thirty-one years at £150 a-year. Litigation having ensued between Ewing and the Congreves about this agreement, a deed of compromise was executed between the testamentary guardians of John Congreve a minor (the eldest son of Ambrose Ussher Congreve) and Ewing, whereby the latter agreed to give up the lands in consideration of an annuity...