A tenant who had possessed a sheep-farm under a formal lease embodying certain estate regulations applied for a renewal of his lease by letter in the following terms:-‘I hereby offer to take the farms of Rossal and Dernacullen as at present possessed by me on the following terms, viz., Lease, five years, Rossal, rent pounds 100 per annum; Dernacullen, rent, pounds 40 per annum. Right of fishing in the Coleader river for two rods; a porch to be erected at kitchen door of Rossal house. Your acceptance of the above will oblige.’ That offer was accepted.
Held ( aff. the judgment of the Second Division) that the estate regulations could not be treated as incorporated in the missives, either by reference to the former lease or as provisions usual and proper in such leases, and which must have been in contemplation of the parties on entering into the contract.
Observed, that the fact that the tenant had in the negotiations subsequent to the exchange of the missives repudiated any intention to be bound by the missives, did not prevent him from maintaining that these regulations as regards the taking over of sheep stock at the termination of the lease formed, on a true construction of the missives, part of the contract between him and the landlord.
Opinion (by Lord Shand) that if the tenant were able to prove a universal and clear custom in regard to the stock to be taken over by the landlord at the termination of the lease, such custom might be read into missives containing no express provision on the subject as part of the lease. Evidence held insufficient to prove any such custom.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor (Halsbury), Lord Macnaghten, Lord Shand, Lord Brampton, and Lord Robertson
Citations:
[1899] UKHL 623, 37 SLR 623
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Landlord and Tenant
Updated: 06 December 2022; Ref: scu.631845
