§ MR. CREAN (Cork, S.E.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the case of O'Leary v. Sherlock; whether he is aware that the Sub-Commissioners, on the application of O'Leary, who was then under notice to quit, fixed a fair rent on his holding; that Chief-Commissioner Fitzgerald, on appeal of Mr. Sherlock, the landlord, reversed the decision of the Sub-Commissioners; and that the Lord Chief Baron and Lords Justices Holmes and Fitzgibbon, on appeal by the tenant, unanimously decided in favour of the Sub-Commissioners and set aside the ruling of Chief-Commissioner Fitzgerald; and whether, in view of the fact that many of the poorer tenants in Ireland are deprived of their rights under the Land Acts, being unable to face the expenses of vexatious appeals, some method less costly than the present will be provided to enable them to secure these advantages.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) I am informed that the facts are substantially as stated in the Question. The Court of Appeal ordered the landlord to pay the tenant's costs of the appeal. The decisions of the Land Commission Court under the Land Law Acts are, like the decisions of the ordinary superior courts, subject to appeal to the Court of Appeal. The Land Commission decide several thousand fair rent cases annually and very few of these cases are taken to the Court of Appeal. I am informed that the system works satisfactorily. It seems desirable that, in land cases as in other cases, questions of law should in the last resort be subject to review by the highest authority.