Facts: D entered into an agreement with C for the lease of a property, which contained the following terms: The lease was to last for seven years; The rent was to paid quarterly in arrears. A year’s rent was payable in advance should the landlord D demand. There was no deed executed for this tenancy, though the C moved in and paid the agreed amount in arrears. D demanded the rent for the next year in advance, and C refused, on the basis that because there was no deed executed, there was no lease, and thus D’s demand was not enforceable.
Issue: Whether the lease agreement and the terms therein was enforceable. The question at law was whether the common law rules relating to leases applied, or equity applied.
Held (Court of Appeal): Found in the favour of D and a common law remedy of distress was granted. Equity was the rules which ought to be applied, notwithstanding the absence of a deed which formalised the lease. Following the Judicature Acts which were introduced between 1873 and 1875, the common law (CL) system and the system of equity were combined, and where the two systems conflict, the rules of equity shall be the rules which prevailed. Under the rules of equity, the parties had created an enforceable lease.