Cunliffe v Goodman: CA 1950

Action for damages for breach of a repairing covenant on the expiry of a lease. The court looked at the intention required of a landlord to show an intended purpose to oppose renewal of a lease. Asquith LJ said: ‘An ‘intention’ to my mind connotes a state of affairs which the party ‘intending’ – I will call him X – does more than merely contemplate: it connotes a state of affairs which, on the contrary, he decides, so far as in him lies, to bring about, and which, in point of possibility, he has a reasonable prospect of being able to bring about, by his own act of volition. X cannot, with any due regard to the English language, be said to ‘intend’ a result which is wholly beyond the control of his will. He cannot ‘intend’ that it shall be a fine day tomorrow: at most he can hope or desire or pray that it will. Nor, short of this, can X be said to ‘intend’ a particular result if its occurrence, though it may be not wholly uninfluenced by X’s will, is dependent on so many other influences, accidents and cross-currents of circumstance that, not merely is it quite likely not to be achieved at all, but, if it is achieved, X.’s volition will have been no more than a minor agency collaborating with, or not thwarted by, the factors which predominately determine its occurrence. If there is a sufficiently formidable succession of fences to be surmounted before the result at which X aims can be achieved, it may well be unmeaning to say that X ‘intended’ that result . . The project at issue never ‘moved out of the zone of contemplation – out of the sphere of the tentative, the provisional and the exploratory – into the valley of decision’ As to the ‘definiteness’ of the intention: ‘Not merely is the term ‘intention’ unsatisfied if the person professing it has too many hurdles to overcome, or too little control of events: it is equally inappropriate if at the material date that person is in effect not deciding to proceed but feeling his way and reserving his decision until he shall be in possession of financial data sufficient to enable him to determine whether the project will be commercially worth while.’

Cohen LJ, Asquith LJ, Singleton LJ
[1950] 2 KB 237, [1950] 1 All ER 720
Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 18(1)
England and Wales
Cited by:
CitedAtkinson (HM Inspector of Taxes) v Camas Plc CA 6-May-2004
An investment company made an abortive attempt to take over another. It sought to set off against its Corporation Tax, the costs of the professional advice incurred.
Held: The expenses were deductible. . .
ApprovedBetty’s Cafe Ltd v Phillips Furnishing Stores Ltd HL 1958
On a renewal of a tenancy a landlord’s counter-notice under section 26(6) relied on section 30(1)(f) and (g).
Held: (Lord Keith dissenting) The court was bound to have regard to the position as it was on the date of the order. The landlord . .
CitedGregson v Cyril Lord Ltd CA 1962
A landlord opposing the grant of a new tenancy on the basis that he wished to conduct his own business from the premises, need not show that everything is in place to conduct the new business, but must be able to show that most obstacles to starting . .
CitedDolgellau Golf Club v Hett CA 3-Apr-1998
The landlord opposed the renewal of the tenancy saying that it wanted to run a golf club on the land. The tenant replied, saying that the businees had little prospect of success.
Held: Where the landlord had expressed intention to commence . .
CitedHill (As Trustee In Bankruptcy of Nurkowski) v Spread Trustee Company Ltd and Another CA 12-May-2006
The defendants sought relief for transactions entered into at an undervalue. The bankrupt had entered into charges and an assignment of a loan account in their favour before his bankruptcy, and the trustee had obtained an order for them to be set . .
CitedPatel and Another v Keles and Another CA 12-Nov-2009
The landlord objected to the renewal of the lease, saying that he intended to occupy the premises for his own business. The court had found that he intended to sell the property.
Held: The landlord’s appeal failed. Parliament has not laid down . .
CitedSomerfield Stores Ltd v Spring (Sutton Coldfield) Ltd ChD 4-Aug-2010
The landlord had opposed the renewal of the claimant’s business tenancies saying that it wished to redevelop the sites. Before the matter came to trial, the landlord went into administration, and the tenant sought summary judgment. It now appealed . .
AppliedChez Gerard Ltd v Greene CA 1983
. .
CitedHumber Oil Terminals Trustee Ltd v Associated British Ports ChD 24-Feb-2011
The claimant sought to renew its leases of docking facilities from the landlord defendant. The defendant resisted saying it intended to operate its own business, and the claimant now alleged that the defendant was abusing its dominant position to . .
CitedHumber Oil Terminals Trustee Ltd v Associated British Ports CA 10-May-2012
The tenant appealed against a finding that the landlord was entitled to resist renewal of its lease under the 1954 Act challenging the stated intention of the landlord to occupy the premises for its own business purposes. It said that the proposed . .
CitedS Franses Limited v The Cavendish Hotel (London) Ltd SC 5-Dec-2018
The question which arises on this appeal is whether it is open to the landlord to oppose the grant of a new business tenancy if the works which he says that he intends to carry out have no purpose other than to get rid of the tenant and would not be . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Landlord and Tenant

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Updated: 29 November 2021; Ref: scu.198422