Joram Developments Ltd v Sharratt
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Lord Diplock,Viscount Dilhorne,Lord Elwyn-Jones,Lord Fraser of Tullybelton,Lord Russell of Killowen |
| Judgment Date | 12 July 1979 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [1979] UKHL J0712-1 |
| Date | 12 July 1979 |
| Court | House of Lords |
[1979] UKHL J0712-1
House of Lords
Lord Diplock
Viscount Dilhorne
Lord Elwyn-Jones
Lord Fraser of Tullybelton
Lord Russell of Killowen
Upon Report from the Appellate Committee to whom was referred the Cause Carega Properties S.A. (formerly Joram Developments Limited) against Sharratt, That the Committee had heard Counsel as well on Monday the 25th as on Tuesday the 26th days of June last upon the Petition and Appeal of Frank Sharratt of Flat 48, Coleherne Court, London S.W.5 praying that the matter of the Order set forth in the Schedule thereto, namely an Order of Her Majesty's Court of Appeal of the 7th day of March 1978 might be reviewed before Her Majesty the Queen in Her Court of Parliament and that the said Order might be reversed, varied or altered or that the Petitioner might have such other relief in the premises as to Her Majesty the Queen in Her Court of Parliament might seem meet; as also upon the Case of Carega Properties S.A. (formerly Joram Developments Limited) lodged in answer to the said Appeal; and due consideration had this day of what was offered on either side in this Cause:
It is Ordered and Adjudged, by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the Court of Parliament of Her Majesty the Queen assembled, That the said Order of Her Majesty's Court of Appeal (Civil Division) of the 7th day of March 1978 complained of in the said Appeal be, and the same is hereby, Affirmed with the variation that the words "And that the costs of the Plaintiffs of this Appeal be taxed and paid by the Defendant" be added after the words "taxed on scale 2." and that the said Petition and Appeal be, and the same is hereby, dismissed this House: And it is further Ordered, That the Appellant do pay or cause to be paid to the said Respondents the Costs incurred by them in the Courts below and in this House up to the 12th day of June 1979, the amount of such last-mentioned Costs to be certified by the Clerk of the Parliaments if not agreed between the parties: and it is also further Ordered that the Appellant's costs after 12th June 1979 be taxed in accordance with the provisions of Schedule 2 to the Legal Aid Act 1974.
My Lords,
The only question in this appeal is one of construction of the Rent Act 1968. It is whether a person between whom and the deceased statutory tenant of a dwellinghouse there is no connection by way of consanguinity, of affinity, of adoption (de jure or de facto) during minority or of regular sexual intercourse (past or present) can be a member of the tenant's family within the meaning of Schedule 1, paragraph 3, to the Act, so as to entitle him to become the statutory tenant of the dwellinghouse by succession to the deceased.
The facts of the instant case, if they are not unique, are certainly most unusual, and for that reason they do not, in my opinion, provide a suitable occasion for this House to undertake a general consideration of what persons may be included in the expression "a member of the original tenant's family" where at the time of the tenant's death there did exist between him and the claimant to a statutory tenancy by succession a relationship of one or other of the various kinds to which I have referred above. In particular, the difficult question posed by Dyson Holdings Ltd. v. Fox [1976] Q.B. 503 as to the extent, if any, to which changed social attitudes towards co-habitation between unmarried couples and the offspring of such liaisons may have enlarged the meaning of the expression "family" in the Rent Act 1968 does not arise in the instant case and is best left for consideration in the light of the actual facts of a case in which it does arise.
The deceased statutory tenant of Flat 48, Coleherne Court, London, S.W.5, of which the respondents claim possession, was Lady Salter, the widow of a High Court judge, who had died as long ago as 1929. In 1957, when she was aged 75, she first met the appellant, Mr. Sharratt, who was then aged 24. They shared a mutual interest in politics and the theatre and a close friendship grew up between them. In the following year, Lady Salter suggested that Mr. Sharratt should come to live in her flat at Coleherne Court. He fell in with this suggestion and for the first three years that he resided there he paid her ?4 a week for bed and breakfast. After that the payments ceased. Lady Salter at all times paid the rent of the flat, but the other expenses were shared between them. This continued until her death at the age of 94 in April 1976.
The relationship between them throughout was platonic and filial. He behaved towards her as a dutiful and affectionate son and looked after her during her declining years. She would have liked to speak of him as her son, but this was not acceptable to Mr. Sharratt, whose mother was still alive; so they decided that he would call her Aunt Norah and she addressed him by an affectionate nick-name. There was throughout no question of his being financially dependent on her. All that he did for her over the eighteen years that he resided with her in the flat had no other motive than kindness and...
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