VOLUME V.
IRELAND.
appeal from the court of exchequer.
Barrett,—Appellant; Burke,—Respondent [Feb. 26, March 5, 1817].
[Mews' Dig. viii. 840. As to the Tenantry Act (19 & 20 Geo. III. c. 30) (Ir.), see Nolan and Kane's Stats. relating to Law of Landlord and Tenant in Ireland (ed. 1898), Appx. of Stats. pp. xii, xiii; and Hussey v. Domville, (1900) 1 I. R. 417.]
[Lease in 1713 for three lives, renewable for ever on payment of a fine on the dropping of each life, at £50 rent, by A. to B. B. leases the lands to C. at £100 rent, with covenant to renew for ever to C. on the same terms; and B. also covenants to renew regularly with A. C. pays his fines and renews with B., but B. never renews with A. A representative of A., in 1793, accepts some money from C. towards the discharge of the fines due from B., and makes demands for payment of the whole of the fines by C., which C. neglects to comply with. A formal demand of the fines made by a representative of A. in 1799, against C., who does nothing for nine months after demand, and then makes an illusory tender which is not accepted. Held, by the House of Lords, that under these circumstances C. had no claim in equity to a renewal.]
[2] [Per Lord Redesdale. A formal demand is not necessary under the Tenantry Act. The true meaning of the Tenantry Act is to declare what was the Equity of Ireland, with respect to these leases, before the statute. When a demand is made, the neglect to pay, when it goes beyond what is a reasonable time for payment, ceases to be mere neglect and becomes wilful. What is a reasonable time for payment must depend on circumstances, and no precise time applicable to all cases can, with justice, be fixed. Though a formal demand is not necessary, yet, when such a demand is made, the prior demands are waived, and the time is to be computed from the period of the formal demand: but prior demands are to be taken into account in considering what is a reasonable time after the formal demand. When the first lessee receives the fines from his under-tenant, and neglects to pay them to the head landlord, that is fraud in the first lessee, who is therefore not entitled to a renewal, and the remedy of the under-tenant is against the first lessee, and not against the bead landlord. The landlord, in making the demand, is not bound to state the precise sum due, nor to make a demand upon, or give notice to, every individual interested in the subject. The original design of these leases, was the better cultivation of inferior lands and the more easy recovery of the rent, etc.]
By indenture, dated 23d December 1713, the Honourable Edward Brabazon, being seized in fee of certain lands, those of Garrylish and others, in the county of Tipperary,
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