Switzer & Company v The Commissioner of Valuation

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 23 July 1901
• Date: 23 July 1901
• Court: King's Bench Division (Ireland)

Switzer & CO.

and

The Commissioner of Valuation (1).

K. B. Div.

Appeal.

CASES

DETERMINED BY

THE KING'S BENCH DIVISION

OF

THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN IRELAND,

AND ON APPEAL THEREFROM IN

THE COURT OF APPEAL,

AND BY

THE COURT FOR CROWN CASES RESERVED.

1902.

Valuation Acts—Rateable premises—Different premises held under different leases converted into one building—Unit of valuation—Bulk valuation—Town clerk’s list—Jurisdiction of Commissioner of Valuation.

Prior to 1897 Switzer & Co. were the occupiers of certain premises in Grafton-st., Dublin, and also of other premises in Wicklow-st., Dublin, held under different leases, and from different lessors, and valued as nine separate tenements. These premises consisted of one large shop, the main front of which faced Grafton-street. Structurally there was communication from one portion of the premises to the other, and they all formed the shop. The premises were valued separately as nine separate tenements, in respect of which S. & Co. had the right to deduct the landlord's proportion of poor-rate and income tax. In 1897 S. & Co. purchased the lessees' interest of certain houses in Clarendon-street, which ran parallel to Grafton-street, at the rere of their existing premises. These premises were held under separate leases at rents varying in amount, and each of the houses in Clarendon-street had previously been valued separately. S. & Co. pulled down the houses, and erected on the site a large building facing Clarendon-street. Access was opened from the Grafton-street premises to the new building, so as to form one whole concern. When the Clarendon-street premises had been erected the rate collector, in pursuance of sect. 4 of the Valuation Act, 15, placed the Clarendon-street premises on the list requiring revision of valuation, and the said list was duly transmitted by the Town Clerk to the Commissioner of Valuation, who, thereupon, struck out the separate valuations of the premises, and placed one bulk valuation on the entire premises in Grafton-street, Wicklow-street, and Clarendon-street:—

Held (1), that the Commissioner had no jurisdiction to make a valuation of any property other than that in the Town Clerk's list; and (2) that he must make a separate valuation of all the separate properties held under different tenancies.

Case Stated by the Recorder of Dublin, who refused to alter a revised valuation made of the premises of Switzer & Co.

The case was in the following terms:—

This is an appeal pursuant to section 22 of the Valuation (Ireland) Act, 1852 (15 & 16 Vict. c. 63) against the decision of the Commissioner of Valuation, refusing to alter the revised valuation purporting to have been made in pursuance of the Valuation (Ireland) Acts, 1852–1874, and Order in Council under section 105 of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, in respect of the rateable tenements in the occupation of Switzer & Co. (Limited), known as No. 87a, in the rere of No. 87, Grafton-street, No. 88, Grafton-street, and tenement at the rere of 89, Grafton-street, Nos. 91, 92, and 93, Grafton-street, Nos. 38, 43, and 44, Wicklow-street, and Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, Clarendon-street, all in the Royal Exchange Ward, Union of South Dublin, and city of Dublin.

Prior to the year 1900 Switzer & Co. held, and still hold, Nos. 88, 91, 92, and 93, Grafton-street, being houses facing the said street, described on the valuation lists as 87a; also premises built on a yard at the rere of No. 89, Grafton-street, and Nos. 43 and 44, Wicklow-street. The said premises were held under nine different leases, and were valued as nine separate tenements, although structurally they all communicated with one another, and formed one business establishment.

Under the said grants and leases the tenants had the right of deducting landlord's proportion of poor-rate and income tax. In the valuation lists up to and including the list for the year 1900 the name of Switzer & Company (Limited) appears as the occupier of nine distinct sets of premises, the names of the immediate lessors for each set of premises appearing separately in the lists.

In 1897 Switzer & Co. purchased the lessees' interest in the premises Nos. 1 to 5, Clarendon-street, which were the houses situate at the back of their premises in Grafton-street and Wicklow-street, and are held as follows:—

No. 1, Clarendon-street, held for sixty-one years from 1853 at a yearly rent of £15; No. 2, Clarendon-street, held for sixty years from 1852 at a yearly rent of £16; No. 3, Clarendon-street, held for one hundred years from 1849 at a yearly rent of £16; No. 4, Clarendon-street, held for sixty years from 1852 at a yearly rent of £16; No. 5, Clarendon-street, held for sixty years from 1851 at a yearly rent of £20.

Prior to the purchase the houses were in the occupation of tenants, and each of the houses 1 to 5 was valued separately as follows:—No. 1, Clarendon-street at £15; No. 2 at £15; No. 3 at £14; No. 4 at £15; and No. 5 at £17.

Switzer & Co. pulled down the houses Nos. 1 to 5, Clarendon-street, and erected on the site thereof a large building facing Clarendon-street, with two entrances therefrom. Portion of the rere walls of the premises of Switzer & Co. in Grafton-street and Wicklow-street was removed so as to open access from these premises to the Clarendon-street premises, there being no separation on the ground floor, but free access from one part of the shop to another. Except for such removal the premises in Grafton-street or Wicklow-street were not structurally altered or their boundaries changed.

When the fabric of the Clarendon-street premises had been erected, the rate-collector, in pursuance of section 4 of the Annual Revision of Valuation (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1854, put on his list of tenements requiring revision of valuation Nos. 1 to 5, Clarendon-street, and delivered the same to the Town Clerk, and the Town Clerk transmitted the said list to the Commissioner of Valuation with the opinion of the Council thereon that such revision was necessary. The Commissioner of Valuation struck out in the valuation lists the separate valuation of the premises in the occupation of Switzer & Co., and valued the whole block of buildings in Grafton-street, Wicklow-street, and Clarendon-street as one tenement, describing Switzer & Co. (Limited) as occupiers thereof, and Otway, Johnson, Jameson, and others as immediate lessors, and he placed one bulk valuation on the entire premises, and transmitted the lists so revised to the Town Clerk. It appeared that Otway, Johnson, and Jameson were severally lessors of parts, though not in fact immediate lessors of all the said premises. Switzer & Co. appealed to the Commissioner of Valuation against this revised valuation on the ground that the same was not in accordance with the provisions of the Valuation Acts, and that it was excessive, having regard to the valuation of similar premises in the neighbourhood, reserving the right to alter or amend such notice. The Commissioner of Valuation on the hearing of the appeal declined to alter the said bulk valuation of £1900, and he transmitted to the Town Clerk the list unaltered as respects the bulk valuation. Switzer & Co. appealed to the Recorder on the grounds:—

1. That inasmuch as the premises in the occupation of the appellants were comprised of several distinct tenements or hereditaments held under separate titles for different terms, the said revised valuation is bad on the face of it, as not being in accordance with the manner and form prescribed by the said Acts in that behalf requiring every tenement or rateable hereditament to be separately valued.

2. That the revised valuation had been made without, and in excess of, jurisdiction.

3. That during the year preceding the revised valuation there had been no alteration in the limits or value of the tenements or hereditaments 87a in the rere of 87, Grafton-street, No. 88, Grafton-street, and Nos. 43 and 44, Wicklow-street, and

4. That the houses in Grafton-street and Wicklow-street had been improperly included in the revised valuation.

Matheson, K.C., and Henry Hunt, for Switzer & Co.

Wright (Solicitor-General) and Vesey Fitzgerald, for the Commissioner of Valuation.

Palles, C.B.:—

The questions argued before us arise upon a case stated by the learned Recorder of Dublin, upon the hearing by him of an appeal, under section 22 of the Valuation (Ireland) Act, 15 & 16 Vict. c. 63, against a decision of the Commissioner of Valuation, refusing to alter a revised valuation, purporting to be made in pursuance of the Valuation Acts, 1852 to 1874, in respect of rateable premises the property of the appellants.

The appellants, Messrs. Switzer & Company, prior to the year 1900, held, and still hold, a number of premises in Grafton-street and Wicklow-street, namely, Nos. 88, 91, 92, and 93, Grafton-street; premises built on a yard at the rere of No. 87, Grafton-street, described in the valuation list as 87a; premises built at the rere of No. 89, Grafton-st., and Nos. 38, 43 and 44, Wicklow-st. These premises were held under nine different leases, and prior to, and in, 1900 they were valued as nine separate tenements in the valuation list, although structurally they communicated with each other, and formed one business establishment. Under those grants and leases the tenants had the right of deducting the landlord's proportion of poor-rate and income tax. In the valuation lists, up to and including the list for 1900, the names of the appellants appear as the occupiers of these nine distinct sets of premises, the names of eight of the immediate lessors also appearing separately in the lists. In or about the year 1897 the appellants purchased the lessees' interests in the premises Nos. 1 to 5, Clarendon-street, which were houses at the rere of, and immediately abutting upon, their Grafton-street premises. These Clarendon-street premises were held under five separate leases. Prior to the purchase these houses...