Statute of Limitations, 1957

• Permanent Page URL

General provisions as to interpretation.

2.—(1) In this Act—

“the Act of 1891” means the Registration of Title Act, 1891;

“action” includes any proceeding (other than a criminal proceeding) in a Court established by law;

“action to recover land” includes—

(a) an action claiming a declaration of title to land,

(b) proceedings by a mortgagee for the delivery of possession of land by a mortgagor,

(c) proceedings under section 13 of the Registration of Title Act, 1942 (No. 26 of 1942), by a person who is registered under the Act of 1891 as the owner of a charge on registered land for possession of the land;

“arbitration”, “arbitration agreement” and “award” have the same meanings as in the Arbitration Act, 1954 (No. 26 of 1954);

“conventional rent” means a rent payable under a lease or other contract of tenancy (whether in writing or not and whether express or implied) and includes the rent payable by a statutory tenant within the meaning of the Rent Restrictions Act, 1946 (No. 4 of 1946), but does not include a fee-farm rent payable under a grant which creates the relationship of landlord and tenant;

“foreshore” means the bed and shore, below the line of high water of ordinary or medium tides, of the sea and of every tidal river and tidal estuary and of every channel, creek, and bay of the sea or of any such river or estuary;

“judgment mortgage” means an affidavit of ownership registered under the Judgment Mortgage (Ireland) Act, 1850;

“land” includes corporeal hereditaments and rentcharges, and an interest in the proceeds of the sale of land held upon trust for sale, but save as aforesaid does not include any incorporeal hereditament;

“mortgage” includes an equitable mortgage and a judgment mortgage and “mortgagor”, “mortgagee” and cognate words shall be construed accordingly;

“the operative date” means the 1st day of January, 1959;

“other limitation enactment” means any enactment (other than this Act) relating to the limitation of actions;

“personal estate” does not include chattels real;

“personal injuries” includes any disease and any impairment of a person's physical or mental condition;

“personal property” does not include chattels real;

“personal representative” means the executor, original or by representation, or the administrator of a deceased person and includes, in relation to land to which the Land Purchase Acts apply, a person who, under those Acts, is, for the purposes of proceedings under those Acts, appointed to be the administrator of the personal estate of a deceased person or nominated to represent a person dead, absent or under a disability;

“registered land” means land the title to which is registered under the Act of 1891;

“rentcharge” means any annuity or periodic sum of money charged upon or payable out of land, and includes—

(a) any annual or periodic payment to the Irish Land Commission, including an annuity in repayment of an instalment mortgage payable into the Church Temporalities Fund, and

(b) any periodic payment which was immediately before the 6th day of December, 1922, collectable under the Crown Lands Acts, 1829 to 1913, being—

(i) a crown rent, or

(ii) a quit rent, or

(iii) a composition rent, or

(iv) any other rentcharge, and

(c) a fee-farm rent, whether the grant under which it arises does or does not create the relationship of landlord and tenant,

but does not include—

(d) a conventional rent, or

(e) interest on a mortgage or charge on land, or

(f) a terminable annuity payable in respect of a loan under the Housing (Gaeltacht) Acts, 1929 and 1934;

“ship” includes every description of vessel used in navigation not propelled by oars;

“State authority” means any authority being—

(a) a Minister of State, or

(b) the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland, or

(c) the Irish Land Commission, or

(d) the Revenue Commissioners, or

(e) the Attorney General.

“Trustee.”

(2) (a) In this Act, “trustee” does not include—

(i) a person whose fiduciary relationship arises merely by construction or implication of law and whose fiduciary relationship is not deemed by any rule of law to be that of an express trustee, or

(ii) a personal representative in the capacity of personal representative.

(b) Where—

(i) an interest (in this paragraph referred to as the new interest) in land, which is conveyed to or vested in a purchaser under the Land Purchase Acts, is, under any provision of those Acts or otherwise, a graft or deemed to be a graft on any previous interest in that land or any other land, and

(ii) the new interest is subject to any rights or equities arising from its being such a graft,

then, neither the purchaser nor any person claiming through him shall, by reason only of the matters mentioned in subparagraphs (i) and (ii) of this paragraph, be, in respect of the new interest, a trustee for the purposes of this Act.

(c) Where—

(i) a person is registered under the Act of 1891 as owner of land, and

(ii) the registration is, in pursuance of subsection (3) of section 29 of the Act of 1891, made subject to the rights or equities referred to in that subsection,

then, neither that person nor any person claiming through him shall, by reason only of the registration, be, in respect of that land, a trustee for the purposes of this Act.

(d) A personal representative in the capacity of personal representative shall not, by reason only of section 1 of the Executors Act, 1830, or section 86 of the Act of 1891, be a trustee for the purposes of this Act.

(3) For the purposes of this Act, a cause of action to recover, in respect of the liability of a tortfeasor to an injured person, an amount recoverable by the tortfeasor under section 4 or 5 of the Tortfeasors Act, 1951 (No. 1 of 1951), shall be deemed to accrue on the date on which judgment was obtained by the injured person against the tortfeasor.

Application of Act to charges for principal sums on registered land.

(4) In the application of this Act to registered land in respect of which a charge for the payment of a principal sum has been created under section 40 of the Act of 1891—

(a) references to a mortgagor shall be construed as references to the registered owner who charged the land,

(b) references to a mortgagee shall be construed as references to the registered owner of the charge,

(c) references to a mortgage shall be construed as references to the instrument of charge,

and cognate words shall be construed accordingly.

Claiming through a person.

(5) (a) For the purposes of this Act—

(i) a person shall be deemed to claim through another person, if he became entitled by, through, under or by the act of that other person to the right claimed;

(ii) a person whose estate or interest might have been barred by a person entitled to an entailed interest in possession shall be deemed to claim through the person so entitled.

(b) A person becoming entitled to any estate or interest by virtue of a special power of appointment shall not, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to claim through the appointor.

Right of action to recover land to include right to enter into possession, distrain, etc.

(6) In this Act—

(a) references to a right of action to recover land shall include references to a right to enter into possession of the land or, in the case of a rentcharge, to distrain for arrears of the rentcharge;

(b) references to the bringing of an action to recover land shall include references to the making of an entry into possession of the land or, in the case of a rentcharge, to making a distress for arrears of the rentcharge.

Possession and dispossession in the case of rentcharges.

(7) In this Act—

(a) references to the possession of land shall, in the case of a rentcharge, be construed as references to the receipt of the rentcharge, and

(b) references to the date of dispossession or discontinuance of possession of land shall, in the case of a rentcharge, be construed as references to the date of the last receipt of the rentcharge.

(8) In this Act, references to any enactment shall be construed as references to that enactment as amended or extended by any subsequent enactment.