§ MR. DILLONI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention or the attention of the Estates Commissioners has been drawn to the case of Doyle, a bankrupt, which has been decided in the Court of Appeal (Ireland) last week, in which a point of law of universal application to such cases has been laid down, the effect of which is that evicted tenants, who may already have been declared bankrupts, or against whom judgments or debts may exist under which they are liable to be so declared in the ordinary course, may be compelled to hand over to the assignees in bankruptcy the tenancies or public moneys given to them on grounds of state policy, which was never contemplated'; and whether he will consider the advisability of introducing an amendment of the law to enable the Estates Commissioners in respect of all past transactions to come in and prevent the moneys of the estate 622 being diverted to the assignee in bankruptcy or otherwise under such circumstances.
§ MR. JAMES CAMPBELL (Dublin University)Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the tenant referred to in the Question was advanced a sum of £1,600 by the Estates Commissioners for the purpose of reinstating him in a holding in the county of Dublin, and that he also got a free grant of £250 to build a house; and that he immediately sold his interest in the new holding for £400? Can the right hon. Gentleman say what became of the free grant?
§ * THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. CHERRY,) Liverpool ExchangeI was not aware that the person in question had been an evicted tenant. I thought he was an ordinary purchaser. In reply to the Question on the Paper I have to say I am informed that the decision of the Court of Appeal in the case referred to was to the effect stated in the Question. I have only seen a newspaper report of the decision, but I gather from that report that the legal question involved in no way referred to evicted tenants. It merely determines that a purchase by a tenant of his holding from his landlord enures for the benefit of his creditors, where the tenant at the time of such purchase was a bankrupt. An evicted tenant who purchases a holding from the Estates Commissioners or from his former landlord is now in exactly the same position as any other tenant purchaser. His property (including his purchased holding) is available for payment of all debts legally due by him and not barred by the statute of limitations. To enable the Estates Commissioners to interfere in the manner suggested by the Question would give him a privilege as to the payment of his ordinary debts over a solvent purchaser which the Government do not consider to be just, and they are not prepared to introduce an amending Bill with that object in view.
§ SIR E. CARSON (Dublin University)Was not the money advanced in this case to restore an evicted tenant taken possession of by the Court of Bankruptcy?
§ * MR. CHERRYNot as far as I am aware.