Dispute over farmland rental heard in court

By KEVIN HUGHES A FAHA farmer has been told to secure a legal written contract the next time he rents out his fields following a second court case over disputed rents in recent years.

Heard at Killorglin District Court on Thursday, Dermot Finn, Faha, took a civil action against farmer Gerard O’Connell, Laharan West, Killorglin for what he claimed was a breach of a verbal agreement made in April 2012 for the rent of his lands at Dooneen, Killarney.

Mr Finn claimed that he had agreed to lease 39 acres – a 15 acre lot and a 24 acre lot - for a total sum of €9,520, a fee that included rent, fertiliser and entitlements.

But Mr O’Connell strenuously denied this figure, stating that a fee of €3,400 was agreed before he put his cattle onto the lands in April 2012. This figure was subsequently paid to Mr Finn on September 24 of that year and Mr O’Connell said he then terminated his agreement in late November 2012 as the land was simply too wet

Mr Finn’s civil action sought the difference between the two sums, €6,120.

Solicitor for the claimant, Aidan O’Connell, said that the figure Mr O’Connell claimed had been agreed came in at just €87 per acre and he labelled this as “quite light” compared to average acreage prices but Mr O’Connell argued that he hadn’t rented the land by the acre.

There was also extensive dispute on entitlements with the lands.

Mr Finn said he had given the entitlements with the 15 acre lot but not with the 24 acre lot but defence solicitor John O’Dwyer said that this was not the case and claimed that entitlements were not discussed in the deal.

Both solicitors then argued over whether entitlements are legally meant to ‘run with the land’, with Mr O’Dwyer stating that they can only be claimed by someone using the land while Mr O’Connell claimed that they could be transferred.

The alleged use of fertiliser on the lands proved a further cause for dispute with Mr Finn stating that he had spread it in the presence of Mr O’Connell while the latter said that he seen no evidence of fertiliser on the land.

“Pity you didn’t get a sheet of paper and an agreement with a solicitor and there’d be no dispute,” Judge James O’Connor stated after both sides were heard , to which Mr Finn replied: “Farmers don’t go legal really”.

The judge then said it was a difficult case to decide as no one had jotted anything down. “The whole thing became a rí rá,” he added before ordering Gerard O’Connell to pay €2,500 to Mr Finn by decree. There was no order for costs. “Go to your solicitor next time,” the judge reiterated before closing the court for the day.