Tanner v Tanner

Tanner v Tanner
Court	Court of Appeal
Citation(s)	[1975] 1 WLR 1346
Keywords
Licence

Tanner v Tanner [1975] 1 WLR 1346 is an English land law case, concerning licenses in land.

Facts

Mr Tanner, ‘milkman by day and a croupier by night’, got involved with Miss Macdermott while still married, she had two twins in 1969 and changed her name to Mrs Tanner, though he never married her. She moved in with him in 1970, giving up her rent controlled tenancy hoping she would remain there till the twins left school. Mr Tanner did divorce his first wife, but then married another woman, and offered Mrs Tanner £4000 to leave, and maintenance that he had not previously paid. She refused. He brought an action to remove her, and succeeded at first instance. She left, and went to a council flat, but appealed, arguing that he was under a contractual duty to allow her to remain until the twins left school, although she merely claimed damages.

Judgment

Lord Denning MR held that the licence could not be terminated, so that Miss Macdermott was entitled to remain in the house. He said as follows.^[1]

“

There was, it is true, no express contract to that effect, but the circumstances are such that the court should imply a contract by him… whereby they were entitled to have the use of the house as their home until the girls had finished school. It may be that if circumstances changed - so that the accommodation was not reasonably required - the licence might determinable. But it was not determinable in the circumstances in which he sought to determine it, namely to turn her out with the children and to bring in his new wife with her family. It was a contractual licence of the kind which is specifically enforceable on her behalf, and which he can be restrained from breaking, and he could not sell the house over her head so as to get her out in that way.

”

Sources on licences

Thomas v Sorrell (1673) EWHC (KB) J85

Protection from Eviction Act 1977 s 5

Winter Garden Theatre Ltd v Millennium Ltd [1948] AC 173

National Provincial Bank v Ainsworth [1965] UKHL 1

Tanner v Tanner [1975] EWCA Civ 4

Children Act 1989 s 15 and Sch 1

Verrall v Great Yarmouth BC [1981] QB 202

Thompson v Park [1944] KB 408

Hurst v Picture Theatres Ltd [1915] 1 KB 1

Hounslow LBC v Twickenham GD Ltd [1971] 1 Ch 233

Land Registration Act 2002 s 116

Family Law Act 1996 ss 30-31

Manchester Airport plc v Dutton [1999] EWCA Civ 844

Binions v Evans [1972] EWCA Civ 6

Ashburn Anstalt v Arnold [1988] EWCA Civ 14

Errington v Errington & Woods [1951] EWCA Civ 2

Inwards v Baker [1965] EWCA Civ 4

De Mattos v Gibson (1858) 4 De G&J 276

see English land law, licenses and leases

Sources on leases

LRA 2002 s 116 and Sch 3, para 1

Protection from Eviction Act 1977 s 5

Family Law Act 1996 ss 30-33

LPA 1925 ss 1 and 205(1)(xvii)

Errington v Errington [1951] EWCA Civ 2

Ashburn Anstalt v Arnold [1988] EWCA Civ 14

Street v Mountford [1985] UKHL 4

Mikeover v Brady [1989] EWCA Civ 1

Aslan v Murphy and Duke v Wynne [1989] EWCA Civ 2

AG Securities v Vaughan [1988] UKHL 8

Prudential Ltd v London Residuary Body [1991] UKHL 10

Bruton v London & Quadrant Housing Trust [1999] UKHL 26

ECHR art 8 and Prot 1, art 1

Kay v Lambeth LBC [2006] UKHL 10

see English land law, licenses and leases

Notes

↑ [1975] 1 WLR 1346, 1350

References

External links

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