The Gazette 1944-46

said that, although having regard to previous decisions and dicta, the county court Judge had no alternative to deciding as he did, the appeal would be allowed, and the case remitted to another county court Judge for consideration by him of all the other matters raised by the pleadings. Solicitors.—Messrs. Hughes, Hooker and Co., for Messrs. Gale and Gale, Poole; Messrs. J. W. Miller and Son, Poole. (Reported in the Times newspaper, 30th November, 1945). LIBRARY ACQUISITIONS ADDISON, Contracts, llth edition, 1911. All Eng land Reports, ordered, not yet received. Anson, Contracts, 1945, not yet received. Blackburne, Torts, 1944, ordered, not yet received. Brooks, Notary, 9th edition, 1939. Broom, Legal Maxims, 10th Edition, 1939. Byles, Bills, 20th edition, 1939. Cheshire, Private International Law. 2nd edition, 1938. Coghlan, The Law ofRent Restriction in Eire, 1944. Collins, Acts and Orders Relating to Death Duties in Eire, 1922-1940. Cropper, Elementary Book-Keeping, 13th edition, 1942. Deale, High Court Practice, 1941. Dicey, Conflict ofLaws, 5th edition, 1932. Dymond, Death Duties, 9th edition, 1942. Dymond, Consolidated Second Supplement to 9th Edition, 1945. Elphinstone, Introduction to Conveyancing, 5th edition, 1900. Fahy & Grogan, Irish Income Tax Law Cases, 1922-1937. Farnsworth, The Residence and Domicil of Corporations, 1939. Gavan Duffy (The Hon. Mr. Justice), Calendar of Statutes, 1922-1943. Gavan Duffy (Colum), A Chapter of Accidents, 1942. Green, Death Duties, 1st Supplement, 1945. Grogan, Irish Income Tax, 1941. Heywood & Massey, Lunacy (England) 6th edition, 1939. Hudson, Building Contracts, 6th edition, 1933. Knocker. Accidents in their Medico-Legal Aspect, 1912. Konstam, Income Tax, 8th edition, 1940. Konstam, Income Tax, 9th edition, 1943. Kons tam, Income Tax, 1945, ordered, not yet received. Xangdon, Excess Profits Duty, Etc., 4th edition, 1920. McDunphy, The President of Ireland, 1945. Nathan, Equity Through the Cases, 1939, ordered, not yet received. Nolan, Poor Rate, 1900. O'Neill, Commercial Who's Who, 1944/45. O'Sullivan, The Irish Free State' and its Senate, 1940. Pollock, Contracts, llth edition, 1942. Pollock, Torts, 14th edition, 1939. Pollock, Partnership, 13th edition, 1937. Powell, Evidence, 9th edition, 1910. Rayden, Divorce, 4th edition, 1942. Rayden, Divorce, 1st Supplement, 1943. Rayden, Divorce, 2nd Supple ment, 1944. Rayden, Divorce, 3rd Supplement, 1945. Robertson, Civil Proceedings By and Against the Crown, 1908. Roscoe, Criminal Evi-

20, 1944, and expiring "on or before March 25, 1945." The house being within the protection of the Rent Restriction Acts, Mrs. Dagger went on to allege facts, which she contended brought the case within paragraph (h) of the first schedule to •the Act of 1933. Mr. Shepherd, by his defence, put in issue the whole of the matters alleged in the statement of claim. The county court Judge held that a notice to quit "on or before" a named date was invalid because ambiguous, and accordingly dismissed the action in limine, refusing to entertain matters relating to the issue of greater hardship arising under the Rent Restriction Acts. Mrs. Dagger now appealed. Mr. Rees-Davies appeared for Mrs. Dagger; Mr. F. W. Beney, K.C. and Mr. E. S. Fay for Mr. Shepherd. MR. JUSTICE EVERSHED, reading the judgment of the Court, said that the county court Judge, in holding that the phrase "on or before March 25, 1945," rendered an otherwise good notice to quit uncertain and ambiguous, was, so the Court were informed, following previous decisions of his own and of other county dourt Judges. A notice to quit, being a unilateral act in exercise of a contractual right to put an end to an existing relation of landlord and tenant, must conform strictly to the legal requirements of the contract. The question for decision was solely one of interpretation : what on its fair and reason able construction did the notice to quit mean. In the opinion of the Court, apart from authoiity, the true effect of the document was, first, to notify the tenant that the landlord thereby gave him an irrevocable notice to determine the tenancy on March 25, 1945 ; and, secondly, to make to the tenant an offer to accept from him a determination of that relationship on any earlier date (of the tenant's choice) on which the tenant should in fact give up possession of the premises. If that view were correct, it followed that a notice to quit "on or before" a fixed date was, rprima facie, valid and effective ; and the position ;.would be the same if the opinion were merely to give up possession at such an earlier date without any corresponding right in the tenant to treat his obligations as tenant as terminated at that earlier date. The tenant was called on to "quit" on the named date simply because his right to remain •would then have ceased. So read, the words "on or before" necessarily imported the offer: : "but if you like to quit on any day before that I •here and now give my consent." Having reviewed the authorities, his LORDSHIP

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