121 / 144
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
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).
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78