The Estate of William H. H. Barton

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 04 May 1909
• Date: 04 May 1909
• Court: Chancery Division (Ireland)

In the Matter of the Estate of William H. H. Barton.

Ross, J.

CASES

DETERMINED BY

THE CHANCERY DIVISION

OF

THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN IRELAND,

AND BY

THE IRISH LAND COMMISSION,

AND ON APPEAL THEREFROM IN

THE COURT OF APPEAL.

1909.

Land Purchase Acts — Irish Land Act, 1903 (3 Edw. 7, c. 37), s. 48, sub-s. 4 — Estate — “So circumstanced that it would … be sold without the consent of the owner as to price” — Date of ascertainments

Held, that the exceptions in section 48, sub-section 4, of the Land Act, 1903, did not apply, and that the bonus was payable.

Final Schedule of Incumbrances.

In February, 1903, a petition for the sale of the estate was presented by an incumbrancer in the Land Judge's Court. The conditional order was made absolute on the 17th April, 1903. On the 11th November, 1903, the petition for sale was dismissed on the consent of all the incumbrancers. At the time of the Land Judge's proceedings the rental of the lands the subject of said proceedings amounted to £1023 11s. per annum, while the annual outgoings to which all the lands were then liable amounted to £1820 11s. per annum, which included a jointure of £500 per annum payable to the vendor's mother, a life annuity of £150 payable to the vendor's aunt, an annual instalment of £52 13s.6d. in lieu of ecclesiastical tithe rentcharge, a head rent of £27 14s.; and the remainder of the sum of £1820 11s. represented interest on incumbrances.

Subsequently to the petition for sale being dismissed, but before the institution of the proceedings for sale in the Land Commission, the puisne incumbrancers on the lands agreed to apportion their charges as between the lands sold in the present matter and other lands subject thereto; and the vendor's mother and aunt, who had not been receiving anything on foot of the jointure and annuity, released the lands from same. As a result of such apportionment and release, the lands sold, in the present matter, were at the time of the institution of the present proceedings solvent as to capital. With regard to income, the rental of the lands immediately prior to the institution of the present proceedings amounted to £842 19s. 8d., while the annual outgoings amounted to £880 17s. 7d., calculated on the basis of interest on all the incumbrances being payable at the full rates payable; but as certain of the puisne incumbrancers were satisfied to accept interest at the reduced rate of 2¹/₂ per cent., the outgoings in fact amounted only to £766 8s. 8d. per...