LAND AGREEMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23160, 5 October 1938, Page 21

LAND AGREEMENT

PROPERTY CLAIM FAILS COMMENT BY JUDGE SUPREME COURT DECISION & CRITICISM OF A SYSTEM "This is another example of the loss likely to bo sustained by persons owning interests in land when they entrust tho preparation of legal documents to land agents and other unqualified persons," said Mr. Justice Quilliam in the course of a judgment delivered in the Supreme Court yesterday on a property claim against tho Auckland Education Board. His Honor was asked to determine whether a certain agreement was authorised by the provisions of the Settled Land Act, 19D8, and operated as a valid lease, and whether the agreement gave the claimant a right to claim compensation under the Public Works Act. . : "1 have reluctantly ' come to the conclusion," said His Honor, "that both questions must be answered in the negative. The agreement was prepared by a land agent. If a solicitor had been employed the question would never have arisen. The claimant, relying on what he thought was a right of renewal of his tenancy for a further term of five years, has expended time and' money on the property, from which he can 'derive 110 benefit. "In this case a printed is apparently in general use among land agents, was used," his Honor continued. "This form is quite unsuitable when it is intended to create a tenancy under the Settled Land Act. Jt is a well-known and salutary principle of/law that where a person undertakes tlie conduct of anything requiring special skill or knowledge there is required of him a competent measure of the skill and knowledge usually found in persons who usually undertake such matters. It is obvious that the person engaged in the preparation of the agreement (in spite of the legal duty cast on him of having the necessary skill for the work he undertook to do) had 110 knowledge that transactions of the kind -involved in this case are governed, and have been governed for many years, by the provisions of the Settled Land Acts."