''Gladstone v Bower''

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2 QB 384 was a 1959 case in the

English Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal (formally "His Majesty's Court of Appeal in England", commonly cited as "CA", "EWCA" or "CoA") is the highest court within the Courts of England and Wales#Senior Courts of England and Wales, Senior Courts of England and Wal ...

, concerning security of tenure in tenancies of agricultural holdings. It arose from what was then thought to be a

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in the

Agricultural Holdings Act 1948 The Agricultural Holdings Act 1948 was an Act of Parliament passed in the United Kingdom by the Labour government of Prime Minister Clement Attlee. It provided tenant farmer A tenant farmer is a person (farmer or farmworker) who resides on ...

Facts

Under the AHA 1948, a tenancy for a term certain of less than a year would be converted to a year-on-year tenancy by the operation of s2, and a tenancy for a term certain of two to five years would be converted to a year-on-year tenancy by the operation of s3. In ''Gladstone v Bower'', the term certain was eighteen months.

Judgment

The Court of Appeal held that because neither s2 nor s3 of the 1948 Act applied, the tenancy expired at the end of the fixed term and the landlord was entitled to recover possession.

Significance

After the decision, the presiding judge ( Diplock J) expected that the law would be changed. As he put it, "If it were permissible to speculate at large as to the intentions of Parliament, I should be tempted to guess that Parliament simply overlooked the case of a lease for a fixed term of between one and two years." He felt that Parliament could not possibly have intended to confer security of tenure on both lettings of less than a year and more than two years, but to leave out lettings for terms in between. However, Parliament expressly excluded such agreements from security of tenure in the

Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

, the Agricultural Holdings Act 1984 and the

Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

. After 1959, agricultural tenancies for terms of this period became known as ''Gladstone v Bower agreements'', under which the landlord need not serve a Notice to Quit to end the tenancy, but if the tenant were allowed to hold over, he might obtain statutory security.Gregory, M. and Parrish, M.: ''Essential Law for Landowners and Farmers,'' page 68. London: Collins Professional Books, 1987. . The

Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995 The Agricultural Holdings Act 1995 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which applies to England and Wales. It is in force. The Act reformed and substantially deregulated the law relating to agricultural tenancies, and has had the ...

has superseded the previous Acts and new ''Gladstone v Bower'' agreements can no longer be created.

Notes

{{reflist, 2 English property case law 1959 in case law Court of Appeal (England and Wales) cases 1959 in British law

Facts

Judgment

Significance

See also

Notes