Property – Sale of Heritage – Conditions
A theatre and the ground on which it stood were sold under burden of payment of certain annuities to a body of shareholders, who up to the date of the sale were proprietors of the subjects, and under stipulation that each of these shareholders should be entitled to free admission to the building then standing there, it being declared that this right was personal to the shareholders, and that the purchaser should not be entitled to convert the theatre to any other purpose. That theatre was burnt down and a new theatre built – the subject had also been conveyed more than once to new purchasers, the shareholders’ rights to payment of their annuities, which had been declared real burdens, being always reserved, and it being always provided that they should be allowed ‘the privilege to which they are entitled;’ and that privilege of admission they had enjoyed for several years. Held, in an action brought against the lessees of the new theatre by the shareholders to have it declared that they were entitled to the privilege of free admission, that their right being a mere personal right depending on contract, must be renewed with each successive disponee, and that neither the reservation of ‘the privilege to which they are entitled,’ nor the possession had by them, was habile to impose the obligation contended for on the disponees of the party, with whom they had originally contracted, and with reference to a theatre other than that mentioned in the deed by which their privilege was created.
Judges:
Earl Cairns, Lord Blackburn, and Lord Watson
Citations:
[1881] UKHL 454
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Land
Updated: 28 June 2022; Ref: scu.636791