Nixon v Commissioner of Valuation

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: Gannon J.
• Judgment Date: 21 December 1976
• Neutral Citation: 1976 WJSC-HC 1116
• Court: High Court
• Date: 21 December 1976

1976 WJSC-HC 1116

THE HIGH COURT

NIXON v. COMMISSIONER OF VALUATION

IN THE MATTER OF AN APPEAL

UNDER THE VALUATION ACTS

BETWEEN:

SAMUEL NIXON

Appellant

and

THE COMMISSIONER OF VALUATION

Respondent

and

BETWEEN:

GEORGE QUINN

Appellant

and

THE COMMISSIONER OF VALUATION

Respondent

Gannon J.

1 In both of these appeals His Honour Judge Ryan, sitting at Monaghan in the County of Monaghan, has stated cases at the request of the Commissioner of Valuation raising a question as to the liability to valuation, pursuant to the Valuation (Ireland) Act 1852 as amended by the Local Government (Reduction of Valuation) Act1966, of poultry houses used in a particular method of breeding and rearing chickens. In each case the facts which were proved or admitted are set out fully in the Cases Stated and the questions of law for determination on this appeal are the same in both cases. As the differences in the facts in the two cases are of no particular significance to the application of the principles of law, it is convenient to deal with both appeals simultaneously. By way of indicating the nature of the questions of law for determination it would suffice to summarise the material facts very shortly.

2 Mr. Nixon is a farmer having 118 acres 1 rood 22 perches of land at Raconnell, County Monaghan none of which is cultivated by tillage. He keeps 70 to 75 head of store-cattle and has 12 acres of land under apple trees. He rears ducks, pullets and laying-fowl on a large scale. In 1962 he built a poultry house, 70 feet by 38 feet having a capacity for 3,500 to 4,000 birds, and in 1964 he built another poultry house, 90 feet by 70 feet, having a capacity for 10,000 birds. A valuation of £15 was put on these two houses and he has since built a third poultry house also capable of housing 10,000 birds which has not yet been valued. He uses these poultry houses for intensive breeding and rearing of young chickens for killing and processing for food marketing. He has other old buildings the valuation on which is £25 and the valuation on his lands is £130/5S/Od.

3 Mr. Quinn has two holdings of land in different townlands with a series of poultry houses erected on each. In the townland of Leagh he has 2 acres 3 roods 0 perches, having a valuation of £2 on the lands and poultry houses with a valuation of £20. On the 8 acres 3 roods 12 perches land of his holding in townland of Tamlat he has a house, workshops, stores, poultry houses and offices and the valuation on these buildings is £100. The valuation on the land is £3/10s/Od. In all he has seven poultry houses on a 4 acre area and these were built between 1960 and 1965. He uses these poultry houses for intensive breeding and rearing of young chickens and has up to 48,000 laying-hens in egg production on a very large scale for commercial purposes. In both cases some evidence was tendered to associate the use of the poultry houses with the lands upon which there were no buildings, but in neither case was there any evidence to indicate that the poultry houses themselves were affected in any way by the erection of any other buildings.

4 Through some inadvertence the Cases Stated omitted to incorporate in either case the Certificate of Valuation which, pursuant to section 23 of the Valuation (Ireland) Act 1852, must have been before the Circuit Court. From the Cases Stated it would appear that the appellant in the Circuit Court in each case in shown on the Certificate of Valuation to be the occupier for the purpose of rating liability of separately designated rateable hereditaments consisting of lands, the valuation of which has not been revised, and buildings in respect of which any previous valuation has been revised. The appeals taken to the Circuit Court and to this Court by way of Case Stated is in relation only to the valuation placed on the poultry buildings. The grounds of appeal are in each case that these buildings are farm buildings and that an increase in valuation of such farm buildings is contrary to the provisions of section 14 of the Valuation (Ireland) Act 1852.

5 That section of the 1852 Act has been amended by section 2 of the Local Government (Reduction of Valuation) Act1966in respect of buildings erected on or after the 1st day of March 1959. All the buildings concerned in these appeals...