The Alfred Beit Foundation v Egar

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: Mr Justice David Keane
• Judgment Date: 29 January 2021
• Neutral Citation: [2021] IEHC 65
• Docket Number: [2020 No. 1875P]
• Court: High Court
• Date: 29 January 2021

BETWEEN

THE ALFRED BEIT FOUNDATION

PLAINTIFF

AND

DAVID EGAR

DEFENDANT

[2021] IEHC 65

David Keane

[2020 No. 1875P]

THE HIGH COURT

CHANCERY

JUDGMENT of Mr Justice David Keane delivered on the 29th January 2021

Introduction

1 The Alfred Beit Foundation (‘the Foundation’) moves against David Egar for various, related interlocutory injunctions, principal among which is one restraining him from trespass on the Foundation's lands pending the trial of the present action. In that action, the Foundation seeks, among other reliefs, permanent injunctions in the same terms.

2 The Foundation is an Irish registered company, limited by guarantee. It was incorporated in 1976 by Sir Alfred and Lady Clementine Beit. The Foundation is the owner of the Russborough Estate, near Blessington, County Wicklow. The Estate comprises Russborough House, an eighteenth-century stately home in the Palladian style, together with a demesne of approximately 220 acres of lawn, parklands and woodlands. The National Bird of Prey Centre opened on the Estate in 2016.

3 The report of the Foundation's Committee of Management for the year ended 2019, contains the following description of the Foundation's objectives and activities:

‘The objectives of the [Foundation] are the promotion of the advancement of education in the fine arts in Ireland for the benefit of the public together with the long term preservation of Russborough, its art collections, gardens and parklands.

In order to achieve these objectives, Russborough can be viewed as three different areas each of which are unique but which are designed to complement each other. These are:

• Russborough House

At the heart of Russborough is the house, a 280 year-old Palladian mansion, presenting the bests aspects of an Irish country house to visitors through a wonderful guided tour provided by expert local guides. The house also provides a fitting and suitable venue for appropriate arts, cultural and educational events.

• Visitor facilities area

Surrounding the house is an area comprising a significant visitor attraction in its own right but also generating revenues while limiting the wear and tear on the house. This visitor facilities area includes the many outbuildings, courtyards & grassed areas providing a range of attractions including artisan crafts, specialist activities such as falconry, the playground and the 20,000 square feet, head high, beech hedge maze as well as facilitating family events, concerts, catering and retail.

• The Parklands Area

The remainder of the demesne is the Parklands Area. It provides various attractions for families including parkland walks and trails, the original 18th century walled garden and a woodland, rhododendron walk.’

4 Thus, the Estate comprises a stately house and its demesne that are, both culturally and architecturally, an integrated whole. Moreover, security on the Estate is of the utmost importance, due to the presence in Russborough House of the Beit Art Collection, which has been the subject of several notorious robberies over recent decades.

5 Mr Egar is a farmer in his mid-sixties who lives in Blessington. It is common case that, since around 1976, he has farmed various lands on the Estate with the agreement of the Foundation and with the active approval, while each was alive, of Sir Alfred and Lady Clementine Beit. Sir Alfred died in 1994; Lady Clementine in 2005. For many years, relations between the Foundation and Mr Egar were cordial and cooperative. It suited the Foundation to have parts of the Estate farmed in a manner that did not interfere with other Estate activities and it suited Mr Egar to farm the lands for profit.

6 Sadly, relations between the Foundation and Mr Egar have broken down, due to a dispute that has arisen between them over whether Mr Egar holds, or is entitled to, a leasehold interest in an integral portion of the parklands of the Estate, comprising six fields that directly surround the House on three sides, amounting in aggregate to approximately 100 acres (‘the lands’). The lands, though in pasture and woodland, are identified in some documents as part of the ‘the lawn’, a term once commonly used to denote the parklands associated with a great house but now largely obsolete – at least, in that sense.

7 Mr Egar claims that he holds a commercial tenancy in the lands or, if not, that the Foundation is obliged to grant him one. The Foundation contends that Mr Egar only ever had a licence to farm the lands under various tillage (‘conacre’) and grazing (‘agistment’) contracts, the last of which has now expired.

8 Mr Egar owns some separate lands that once formed part of the Estate. Those separate lands were gifted to him by Sir Alfred Beit in the mid-1970s and conveyed to him by the Foundation in accordance with Sir Alfred's wishes in the mid-nineties (‘the Egar lands’). Mr Egar leases other lands, referred to as ‘the Stacey lands’ and ‘the Walsh lands’, that were also once part of the estate but are now owned by other persons. The Egar, Stacey and Walsh lands are not to be confused with the lands that are the subject of these proceedings.

9 The Foundation derives an important part of its income from events held on the estate. Those events include the annual Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland (‘RHSI’) Garden Show (‘the Garden Show’) and the Kaleidoscope Music & Arts Festival (‘the Festival’).

10 In April 2019, the Foundation entered an agreement with a company named Event Fuels Limited (‘Event Fuels’), licencing it to hold the Festival in June of each of the years 2019, 2020 and 2021. During the Garden Show, one of the fields comprising the lands is used for car-parking and, during the Festival, the lands are used for car-parking, camping and various festival activities.

11 In planning those events, the organisers need an assurance that they are entitled to use the lands pursuant to their existing agreements with the Foundation.

12 Mr Egar's claim that he holds, or is entitled to, a lease granting him exclusive possession of the lands is, for that reason, a matter of urgent concern for the Foundation. The restrictions on the conduct of litigation necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic have prevented an early trial of the Foundation's action, in which it claims that Mr Egar has no interest in the lands, nor any rights over them. Thus, the Foundation seeks interlocutory injunctions against Mr Egar to enable those events to proceed.

Background and procedural history

13 Over many years past, Mr Egar has taken various areas of the estate lands on written 11-month conacre and agistment licence agreements. On 31 March 2018, the Foundation, as owner, and Mr Egar, as licensee, entered a signed written conacre/grazing agreement whereby, in consideration for the payment of €15,000, Mr Egar was licenced to use the lands for the grazing of cattle and sheep from 1 April 2018 to 28 February 2019. That agreement went on to state:

‘The owner and the licensee agree that on up to three occasions during the agreement there could be requests from the owner to take back parts of the 100 acres to facilitate other events at Russborough at no cost to the owner. Two of those events are as follows.

On 16th April for one day only a crew of 20 people are to film at the lake in front of the house.

In the week before the RHSI Garden Show on Sunday 29th July and on July 29th itself part of the back field beyond the ha-ha will be required to create parking as in previous years.’

14 On 8 February 2019, Mr Egar wrote to Eric Blatchford, the chief executive officer of the Foundation, referencing an earlier meeting and telephone call between them and expressing grave concern about what were described as proposed new arrangements, although the nature of those arrangements was not specified. They may or may not have been those for the inaugural Kaleidoscope Music & Arts Festival – I do not know. The letter went on to state, in material part:

‘As you are already aware, I am a long-standing tenant farmer in continuous occupation of the said lands for approximately 40 years. It is a matter of fact and evidence will attest to the pre-existing long-standing nature and extent of the relationship that has ensued between myself and the late Sir Alfred and Lady Clementine.

Mutual trust was the foundation and basis of my long-term tenancy at Russborough. The proposed new arrangements fail to recognise the realities of my tenancy and would greatly undermine and devalue the legal equities that I have acquired. The relationship of landlord and tenant in the Republic of Ireland is a long established and settled matter and applies to all commercial property.

The proposed new arrangements are designed to deliberately restrict and limit my farming operation. My livelihood is farming, and I have built up a stream of revenue that accrues from decades of building farm entitlements under the Common Agricultural Policy.

As you are aware fully aware, I have always been cooperative and will continue to accommodate reasonable requests from Russborough and I have always paid my rent in advance on an annual basis.

Clearly, we must now urgently formalise and recognise our respective positions and it is imperative I have the security of tenure that I am entitled to. I would suggest that you inform all interested parties that I am seeking a 25-year lease with 5-year rent reviews and I would be obliged if you would draft and duly execute same.’

15 Notwithstanding that correspondence, on 1 March 2019, the Foundation, as owner, and Mr Egar, as licensee, entered into a further signed written grazing agreement whereby, in consideration for the payment of €15,000, Mr Egar was again licenced to use the lands for the grazing of cattle and sheep from 1 April 2019 to 28 February 2020. That agreement went on to state:

‘The owner and the licensee agree that on occasions during the agreement there could be requests from...