O'Reilly and Another v East Coast Cinemas Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 20 December 1968
• Date: 20 December 1968
• Docket Number: [1959. No 305 P.]
• Court: Supreme Court

(S.C.)

O'Reilly and Another

and

East Coast Cinemas Ltd

Surrender of lease and grant of new lease - Whether breach of covenant waived - "Wilful waste" -Whether permissive waste may be wilful waste -Landlord and Tenant Act, 1955, s. 55.

In 1947 the plaintiffs granted a lease of a tenement and the lessees estate was assigned to the defendants in 1948. In 1951 the defendants were informed that the tenement was in a state of disrepair. In 1955, when the term of years created by the lease of 1947 had 12 years to run, the defendants surrendered that lease and the plaintiffs granted a new lease to the defendants for a term of 35 years. Each lease contained a covenant by the lessee to keep the tenement in repair during the relevant term of years and to deliver possession at the determination of the term in such repair. The defendants allowed the tenement to fall into disrepair. In 1959, the plaintiffs claimed damages from the defendants for breaches of the covenants for repair. The defendants contended that the plaintiffs, by accepting the surrender and by granting the lease of 1955, had waived any existing claim for damages for breach of the covenant to repair contained in the lease of 1947. The defendants also relied on s. 55 of the Landlord and Tenant Act, 1931, which provides that, unless a state of disrepair is shown to have been due to "wilful damage or wilful waste committed" by the lessee, no damages shall be recoverable for the breach by a lessee of a covenant to repair...