James P Corey Transport Ltd & Ano v Belfast Harbour Commissioners
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | Horner J,Mr Spence |
| Neutral Citation | BT/65 & 66/2019 (Part 2) |
| Date | 06 May 2022 |
| Court | Lands Tribunal (Northern Ireland) |
1
LANDS TRIBUNAL FOR NORTHERN IRELAND
___________
IN THE MATTER OF REFERENCES
BT/65/2019 and BT/66/2019
Between:
1. JAMES P COREY TRANSPORT LIMITED
and
2. OWEN JACOBSON
Applicants
and
BELFAST HARBOUR COMMISSIONERS
Respondent
___________
RE: BELFAST HARBOUR ESTATE
___________
Lands Tribunal for Northern Ireland
The Honourable Mr Justice Horner, President
and
Mr Henry Spence, MRICS, Dip.Rating, IRRV (Hons), Member
___________
Richard Shields BL (instructed by Shean Dickson Merrick, Solicitors) for the applicants
Douglas Stevenson BL (instructed by Carson McDowell LLP, Solicitors)
for the respondent
___________
A. Introduction
[1] The applicants in this case are:
(i) James P Corey Transport Limited (“the company”) which operates from
premises on the Stormont Road, Belfast Harbour Estate (“the first premises”)
where it carries on a road haulage business.
(ii) Owen Jacobson (“Jacobson”) who trades as Jacobson Modulars from premises
at 1 Stormont Road, Belfast (“the second premises”) on Belfast Harbour Estate
where he constructs modular buildings.
2
[2] The preliminary issue which the Lands Tribunal is asked to resolve is the basis
upon which the company occupies the first premises and Jacobson occupies the
second premises. The company and Jacobson both say that they have leases. They
claim to carry on their different businesses at the first and second premises
respectively. Consequently, they claim to be business tenants protected by the
Business Tenancies (NI) Order 1996 (“the 1996 Order”). The Belfast Harbour
Commissioners (“BHC”) who own the Harbour Estate and the premises out of which
each of the applicants operate deny that they have leases and say that they only have
contractual licences which they can determine unilaterally with notice. Consequently,
they do not enjoy any protection under the 1996 Order and the licences can and have
been determined by notices to quit which have been served.
[3] It is the Lands Tribunal’s task to resolve this dispute as to the basis upon which
each of the applicants holds its respective premises on the Belfast Harbour Estate. The
issue of whether an occupier has a lease or a licence in respect of the premises he
occupies, but which is owned by a third party, is an old one. It has been the subject of
too much litigation in Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It
is a matter to which we will return in some detail later on in this judgment.
B. Background Facts
The first premises
[4] Kevin Corey (Corey) is the sole director of the company. His father, James
Corey (now deceased) had set up this transport business in 1970. The business, which
was unincorporated, moved in 1975 to a site at the Pollock Dock on the Belfast
Harbour Estate. James P Corey (Newtownabbey) Limited (“Newtownabbey
Limited”) was incorporated on 6 February 1992 to carry on the business at the Harbour
Estate and did so until it was dissolved on 18 February 2000. In the period between
February 2000 and June 2016 the business was carried on by Corey, initially with the
assistance of his father, James Corey, through an unincorporated business, Corey
Transport. This business was then incorporated as a limited liability company, James
P Corey Transport Limited on 21 April 2016. While Corey had begun by assisting his
father, the sole director and shareholder of Newtownabbey Limited, he had in time
then taken over his father’s mantle and run the business. Effectively, Corey had run
Corey Transport and then the company single-handedly from approximately the end
of 2006/2007.
[5] The road haulage business had been based on the Belfast Harbour Estate from
in and around 1975. As we have noted, it started off at the Pollock Dock where it
remained until 1988 when it moved to a site at the McCaughey Road still on Belfast
Harbour Estate. In 1998 it moved again to another site at 2 McCaughey Road which
it occupied from 1998 to 2007. In 2007 the business moved to the Old Conexpo
premises on the opposite side of the road to the premises at 2 McCaughey Road, the
first premises. The documentary evidence available reveals that on 23 November 1995
Newtownabbey Limited had entered into a licence to occupy what was described as
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