Nixon v Commissioner of Valuation

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: Henchy J.
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1980
• Neutral Citation: 1980 WJSC-SC 386
• Docket Number: [S.C. No. 22 of 1977],No. 22/3/1979
• Court: Supreme Court
• Date: 01 January 1980

NIXON v. COMMISSIONER OF VALUATION

Reversing High - 21/12/76

(bound in 1976)

SAMUEL NIXON

v.

COMMISSIONER OF VALUATION

and

GEORGE QUINN

v.

COMMISSIONER OF VALUATION

1980 WJSC-SC 386

No. 22/3/1979

No. 267 S.S./1976

THE SUPREME COURT

1 Judgment of Henchy J. delivered the 19th December 1979[Nem. Diss.]

2 George Quinn and Samuel Nixon are two Co. Monaghan farmers. They have erected on their lands special houses for the intensive production of broiler chickens and laying hens. In each case the valuation of the tenement in question was increased by an amount attributable to those houses. In each case an appeal against the increased valuation was brought to the Circuit Court. The Circuit Judge allowed the appeal in each case. He held that the poultry houses in question were farm buildings the erection of which did not attract any additional valuation, because of the terms of s. 14 of the Valuation (Ireland) Act, 1852. However, the Commissioner of Valuation asked for a case stated for the opinion of the High Court on the question of liability for the increased valuations. The Circuit Judge stated a case in respect of each of the two rated occupiers.

3 The two cases stated were heard together in the High Court, as the essential facts are largely common to both cases. The argument in the High Court, we have been told, was confined to the question whether the poultry houses were farm houses for the purposes of s. 14 Yet when the judge came to give reserved judgment, he ruled against the rated occupiers on the unargued ground that it was irrelevant whether the poultry houses were farm houses or not for the purposes of the section, for in his opinion they were independent rateable hereditaments, capable of being separately valued, that the section had no application to them. From that decision the two rated occupiers now appeal to this Court.

4 In my opinion, the poultry houses did not become independent rateable hereditaments or tenements when erected. What constitutes the unit of valuation was considered in Switzer v. Commissioner of Valuation 1902 2 I.R. 275 From the judgments given in that case it is clear that while the Valuation Acts give no clear definition of the rateable tenement or hereditament (which is how the unit of valuation is described) the scheme and pattern of the Acts show that where land, or buildings, or land and buildings, are in the occupation of the same rateable occupier under a particular title, such as a lease, they are to be treated as a unit of valuation. The fact that "lands" and "buildings" are enumerated in s. 12 of the Valuation (Ireland) Act, 1852, as rateable hereditaments does not necessarily mean that they must be valued as separate hereditaments. That section merely lists the...