Upton v Hanratty

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1926
• Date: 01 January 1926
• Court: High Court (Irish Free State)

Upton v. Hanratty

ESTATE of VISCOUNT TEMPLETON; HENRY A. C. M. H. UPTON

Landlord

and

ARDLE HANRATTY

Tenant.

Statute of Limitations - Suspension of the operation of the statute - Acquisition of statutory title to land - Landlord and tenant - Effect of the Land Act, 1923 - Landlord unable to recover rent from tenant - Land Act, 1923 (No. 42 of 1923), sects. 19, 20, 21.

The Land Act, 1923, stops the Statute of Limitations running in favour of a tenant as against his landlord, as from the date of its passing, in the case of lands to which it applies.

Motion.

Objection by the tenant that no rent or arrears of rent were payable by him, he having acquired a statutory title to his holding. In the year 1853 Francis Hanratty was accepted as a tenant on the Templeton Estate, in the townland of Carrickaslane, Co. Monaghan, apparently on payment of £50 9s. 1d., arrears of rent due by the previous tenant, at the same rent of £27 19s. 1d. as the previous tenant paid. In 1864 the rent was reduced to £26 6s. The rent was fixed by order of the Land Commission, dated the 19th December, 1884, at £22 15s. The fair rent for the second statutory term was fixed on the 13th February, 1902, at the sum of £17 10s. The landlord appealed, and the rent was increased to £18 4s. about the month of October, 1905. In 1907 and 1908 the estate was sold to the tenants under the Land Act, 1903, but the applicant, Ardle Hanratty, who was then the tenant, did not sign the purchase agreement. He last paid rent in 1907. He was served with a writ for £103 19s. for arrears of rent, and judgment was entered against him on the 18th May, 1912, for that amount, together with £5 16s. for costs. No action was taken on the judgment, and no payment was made by the tenant thereon.

Wylie J. :—I have to decide whether the passing of the Land Act, 1923, was such an event as was capable of suspending the operation of the Statute of Limitations. All the landlord's rights to collect rent have been taken away by sects. 19, 20, and 21 of...