The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by a planning inquiry tribunal, affirming a High Court order that left two Dublin land folios free of judgment mortgages registered against Liam Lawlor’s interest.
The appeal concerned Folio 573F and Folio 47924F, which were held by Liam Lawlor and Hazel Lawlor as joint tenants. Somerton House, their family home, is on Folio 47924F. Judgment mortgages obtained by the tribunal were registered against both folios between July 2002 and March 2004.
The parties accepted that a purported 1997 deed of gift from Liam Lawlor to Hazel Lawlor was ineffective. Liam Lawlor died on 22 October 2005, while the joint tenancy remained unsevered. The judgment says no probate grant had been sought and that no payment had been made during his lifetime toward the sums at issue.
The tribunal argued that registering the judgment mortgages severed the joint tenancy, leaving Liam Lawlor with an encumbered share that passed to his estate. Hazel Lawlor argued that registration did not sever the tenancy and that, when he died, she became sole owner by survivorship, free of the mortgages.
The appeal was limited to a preliminary issue about the legal effect of registering judgment mortgages on registered land held in joint tenancy. The Supreme Court explained that, under the Registration of Title Act 1964, registration charged the judgment debtor’s interest but did not transfer it or sever the joint tenancy. The court also held that a 2004 order for sale in separate proceedings did not itself sever the tenancy; severance would arise if a purchaser entered an enforceable contract for sale under that order.
Because the joint tenancy had not been severed before Liam Lawlor’s death, the surviving joint tenant took the land by survivorship, not through his estate. The mortgages therefore ceased to affect the land. The court dismissed the appeal and affirmed the High Court order.
The judgment states that it applied the law before the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009 commenced on 1 December 2009. It noted that the Act expressly provides that registration of a judgment mortgage against a joint tenant does not sever the tenancy and that the mortgage is extinguished on the debtor’s death if the tenancy remains unsevered.