The High Court has upheld a decision that 2.5 acres of a Cork nursery site are exempt from commercial rates, while remitting a separate dispute over a container store to the Valuation Tribunal.
In a judgment delivered on 14 March 2008, Mr Justice MacMenamin considered a case stated by the Commissioners of Valuation under the Valuation Act 2001. The case concerned Nangles Nurseries’ three-acre site at the junction of Carrigrohane and Model Farm Roads, Ballincollig, County Cork.
The Tribunal had found that the 2.5 acres excluding buildings were land developed for horticulture and therefore not rateable. It also found a container store to be an exempt farm building, while deciding that the site’s other buildings were rateable. The Commissioners challenged the land decision and argued that the Tribunal was not entitled to rule on the container store because it had not been included in the appeal.
The High Court affirmed the Tribunal’s decision on the 2.5 acres. It held that the statutory exclusion for land used for the sale or processing of horticultural produce should be read as applying to a distinct activity, such as a shop or processing plant, where horticultural activity has ended. On the facts before the court, the land qualified as a nursery, and the court found no error in the Tribunal’s determination that the 2.5 acres were exempt under section 15(2) of the Act.
The judgment described the Carrigrohane operation as a nursery and garden centre. Plants and trees were bought in, then potted, planted or held for display and sale while being tended. The court noted that the Tribunal’s findings about the site’s activities were not disputed in the case stated.
On the container store, the court found that neither the appeal form nor the attached material referred to it, and the issue had not been fairly identified through submissions or evidence. The Tribunal had therefore dealt with an issue that was not properly before it. The High Court set aside that part of the Tribunal’s determination and remitted the container-store issue for the Tribunal to consider in accordance with law. It made no further findings on whether the store qualified as a farm building, and said any further hearing should make clearly identified findings of fact.
The High Court did not disturb the Tribunal’s decision that the site’s other buildings were rateable.