Moss v Barton
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Date | 1865 |
| Year | 1865 |
| Court | Equity |
Specific Performance - Agreement for Lease - Option - Waiver.
Under an agreement to let a house for three years at a yearly rent, by which the landlord agreed, at the request of the tenant, to grant him a lease for a term from the expiration of the three years' occupancy, at the same rent, the tenant undertaking to keep the house in repair:—
Held, that the tenant was entitled, four years after the expiration of the three years' occupancy, to have the agreement for a lease specifically performed, and that neither an application made by him two years previously for a lease at a reduced rent (which was refused), nor an application to the landlord for payment of an amount expended in repairs (which had been allowed to the tenant), amounted to a waiver of his rights, though the Plaintiff was bound to refund the cost of the repairs.
THIS was a suit for the specific performance of an agreement for the lease of a house.
By a memorandum of agreement, entered into the 30th of November, 1857, between the late D. W. Wire, of the one part, and the Plaintiff, E. Moss, of the other part, D. W. Wire agreed to let, and the Plaintiff to occupy, the house therein mentioned, at the yearly rent of £111, for a period of three years, to be computed from Christmas then next; and D. W. Wire agreed, at the request of the Plaintiff, to grant him a lease of the premises for five, seven, fourteen, or twenty-one years from the expiration of the aforesaid three years' occupancy, at the same rent; that the Plaintiff should, during his occupancy, keep the premises in good and substantial and ornamental repair; and that during and after the said three years' occupancy, D. W. Wire should have all the landlord's usual rights to compel payment of rent, if neglected.
The Plaintiff continued to occupy the premises, but no formal lease was executed.
In November, 1860, D. W. Wire died, having by his will appointed the Defendants, S. Barton and J. B. Wire, his executors. The rent was paid by the Plaintiff to D. W. Wire during his life, and afterwards to the Defendants.
The Plaintiff, in 1864, claimed to be entitled to exercise his option for a lease under the said agreement; and the present suit was instituted for specific performance of that agreement, the Plaintiff alleging that he had never waived or abandoned his right.
The Defendants, by their answer, stated that they were not aware of the existence of the agreement till...
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