The Irish Land Commission v O'Neill

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 26 November 1914
• Date: 26 November 1914
• Court: King's Bench Division (Ireland)

The Irish Land Commission

and

O'Neill (1).

K. B. Div.

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.

1915.

Moratorium — Postponement of Payments Act, 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. 5, c. 11) — Courts (Emergency Powers) Act, 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. 5, c. 78) — Irish Land Commission — Annuity — Crown Debt.

A purchase annuity payable to the Irish Land Commission under the Irish Land Act, 1903, is a Crown debt, and, as such, does not fall within the provisions of the Courts (Emergency Powers) Act, 1914, or the Postponement of Payments Act, 1914.

Motion.

Application for leave to enter up judgment upon a writ issued on foot of a Land Commission annuity.

The notice was in the following terms:—

“Take notice that on the 10th day of November, 1914, … counsel on behalf of the plaintiffs will apply for a direction to the proper officer to enter up judgment for the amount named in the writ herein, and that execution therefor do issue on foot of such judgment, on the ground that the said sum is a debt due to the Crown, and that the Crown is not bound by the provisions of the Postponement of Payments Act, 1914, or the Moratoria thereunder, or by the Courts (Emergency Powers) Act, 1914; and on the ground that the said debt is a debt due by statute, and that it is not a debt to which the Postponement of Payments Act, 1914, or the Moratoria thereunder, apply, which application will be grounded,” etc.

The affidavit of Mr. William Alexander, the solicitor to the Irish Land Commission, set out:—

“1. That of the sum of £96 17s. 8d. claimed in the writ of summons issued in this matter on the 8th day of September, 1914, the sum of £58 17s. 8d. is due on foot of a Government annuity of £96 17s. 8d., payable by the defendant to the plaintiffs under the provisions of a fiated agreement, dated the 1st day of June, 1907.

2. The sum of £38 was paid to the plaintiffs after service of the said writ on the defendant.

3. The said sum of £96 17s. 8d. represents two half-yearly instalments of the said annuity, which fell due on the 1st day of December, 1913, and the 1st day of June, 1914. The said sum of £58 17s. 8d. is now actually due by the defendant to the plaintiffs over and above all just and fair allowances.

4. On the 2nd day of November, 1914, I applied to the proper officers of the Court to enter up judgment for the said sum of £58 17s. 8d., but they declined to enter such judgment on the ground that they were precluded from doing so by the provisions of the above-mentioned Act of Parliament.”

A. C. Meredith K.C. (with him Babington), for the plaintiffs:—

The sum claimed consists of instalments of a purchase annuity by means of which an advance made under the Land Purchase Acts is being repaid. The source of the advance was the Exchequer, and the destination of the instalments is the Exchequer. These facts without more are sufficient to constitute the debt a Crown debt. The plaintiffs are merely collecting-agents for the Crown, and have no discretion whatever as to the application of the moneys received by them on foot of instalments: Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act, 1870, sect. 55; Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1881, sect. 34, sub-s. 6; Irish Land Act, 1903, sect. 45; Irish Land Purchase Rules, 16th July, 1910, rule 6, sub-rule 1.

The instalments of purchase annuity are expressly recoverable in the name of the Attorney-General for Ireland: sect. 49 of the Act of 1870; sects. 28, 35, and 57 of the Act of 1881. The decision of the Court of Appeal in Attorney-General v. Howley (1) — a decision in respect of a loan by the Land Commission under sect. 31, sub-s. 2, of the Act of 1881—practically rules the case. See per...