Re Nugent's Estate

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 03 July 1925
• Date: 03 July 1925
• Court: Supreme Court (Irish Free State)

In re Nugent's Estate.

In the MATTER of the ESTATE of SIR E. C. NUGENT and Another (1)

Supreme Court.

Landlord and tenant - Land purchase - Whether lands subject to provisions of the Land Act, 1923 - Holding occupied in connexion with demesne - Practice - Appeal - Time for appeal - Land Act, 1923 (No. 42 of 1923),sect. 24, sub-s. 2 (c), sub-s. 8 - R.S.C., 1905, Or. 58, r. 15.

The time within which an appeal must be brought under sect. 24, sub-s. 8, of the Land Act, 1923, from an order of the Judicial Commissioner, refusing a declaration that a tenancy in certain lands is subject to the provisions of the Land Act, 1923, is regulated by Or. 58, r. 15, of the Rules of the Supreme Court, 1905, and not by any rule of the Land Commission.

Sub-s. 1 of sect. 24 of the Land Act, 1923, provides for the vesting of lands in the Land Commission on the appointed day, but the sub-section is not to apply (by sub-s. 2 (c)) to "any parcel of untenanted land which is a demesne . . . or any holding usually occupied by a person in connection with such demesne." It was contended on behalf of a tenant that lands adjoining demesne lands, held under a contract of tenancy, had become part of the demesne, and also that the lands were tenanted demesne, and that, therefore, the lands were excluded from sub-s. 2 (c).

Held, that the tenant's contention was unsustainable, and that the lands were within sub-s. 2 (c).

Held also (by Kennedy C.J. and O'Connor J.) that, whether a particular holding is "a holding usually occupied by a person in connection with such demesne" within the meaning of sub-s. 2 (c), is a question of fact, and no appeal lies from the decision of the Judicial Commissioner under sub-s. 8 of sect. 24.

Appeal under sect. 24, sub-s. 8, of the Land Act, 1923, from an order of Wylie J.

The report of the case in the Court below will be found in [1924] 1 I.R. 96.

The appeal was brought on behalf of the tenant, Lady Mowbray and Stourton, tenant for life, and on behalf of Colonel Edward Francis Farrell and the Rt. Hon. Anthony Robert Pyers, Viscount Southwell, as trustees of the estate of which the lands of Colvinstown form part, for an order that the order, dated 7th April, 1924, of Wylie J. herein, be reversed, and that it may be declared that the tenancy in the lands of Colvinstown, in the County of Meath, the subject-matter of the said order, be declared to be subject to the provisions of the Land Act, 1923.

On the hearing of the application before Wylie J. for the declaration that the tenancy in the lands of Colvinstown were subject to the provisions of the Land Act, 1923, a map was put in evidence showing the demesne and the holding, and illustrating the connexion between the two. The avenues from

the mansion-house pass through the holding. The several leases under which the holding was held were also put in evidence and are referred to in the judgment of Kennedy C.J. The holding is at present held as a tenancy from year to year at £500 a year. The Poor Law valuation is £265 5s., the valuation of the buildings, £14. The further facts...