Re Fitz-Gerald's Estate

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: Meredith, J.
• Judgment Date: 02 June 1902
• Court: High Court (Ireland)
• Date: 02 June 1902

IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF CHARLES EDWARD FITZ GERALD, A VENDOR OF LAND

Chancery Division

Landlord and tenant —— Redemption of superior interests — Impropriate tithe rentcharge — Number of years' purchase.

Clements' Estate Unreported.

Hanrahan's Estate M'Carthy's Land Cases, 5.

Portarlington's EstateDLTR 33 I. L. T. R. 64.

Portarlington, a Vendor, Lord Portarlington's CaseDLTR 33 I. L. T. R. 64.

Re the Earl of Portarlington, a Vendor; Jackson's TithesDLTR 33 I. L. T. R. 64.

The Marquis of Bath, a VendorINTL 27 I. L. R. 38.

Meredith, .T. IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF CHARLES EDWARD 1902. FITZ GERALD, A VENDOR OF LAND. March 24. April 29. Landlord and tenant—Land Purchase Acts—Redemption of superior interests June 2. In the absence of special circumstances, twenty years' purchase is reasonable and sufficient for the redemption of impropriate tithe rent-charge. MOTION upon the ruling of the final schedule of incumbrances for an order for the redemption of certain impropriate tithe rent-charges, and the fixing of the redemption prices at twenty years' purchase of the revised tithe rentcharges. In a schedule annexed to the notice of motion particulars of the several tithes before and after their reduction under the Tithe Rentcharge (Ir.) Act, 1900, and the proposed redemption prices were given. Jellett, K. C., for the party having carriage in West's Estate, in which the tithe rentcharges were for sale in the Land Judge's Court : The tithe owners are entitled to more than twenty years' purÂchase, as these impropriate tithe rentcharges are, at least, of equal value with the ecclesiastical tithe rentcharges now vested in the Irish Land Commission, for which twenty-two and a-half years' purchase is always demanded by the Treasury and allowed. The two classes of tithes were originally pari passu. Under the Tithe Rentcharge Act of 1838 they together made one tithe, issuing out of one parish ; and the fact that one portion of that one tithe was paid to the vicar and the other to the lay impropriator made no difference as to the value of the tithe. They were both equally liable to variation. This continued till the Irish Church Act, 1869, Amendment Act of 1872, sect. 6 (3), provided that the ecclesiastical tithes should not be liable to variation. The next Act of Parliament dealing with tithes is the Land Law (Ireland) Aot, 1887, section 15, which provides for the redemption of tithe rent Vox,. I.] CHANCERY DIVISION. 445 charge. As to the lay tithe, the price is to be fixed by the Land Meredith, Commission. As to that payable to the Land Commission, the 1902. consent of the Commissioners of the Treasury was requisite ; but the In re FITZ fact that different bodies had to fix the redemption price did not GERALD'S make any difference in the value of the tithes. The Treasury ESTATE. gave a general consent to the redemption of the Land Commission tithes at twenty-two and a-half years' purchase, which was duly acted on in every case. Then came the Land Law (Ireland) Act of 1896, section 37 of which provided that where the Land ComÂmission ordered the redemption of tithe rentcharge under sect. 15 of the Act of 1887, at a price not less than twenty years' purchase, the consent of the...