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TMI Blog1930 (1) TMI 15X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... from 1st August, 1909. Among the lessees' covenants in the following: And also will bear, pay and discharge all rates, taxes, charges and assessments and all outgoings whatsoever whether Parliamentary, Municipal, local or otherwise which now or hereafter shall be imposed, charged or assessed upon or in respect of the said premises hereby demised or any part thereof or payable by the owner or occupier in respect there of landlord's property-tax or land-tax only excepted. 3. The lease contains the usual proviso empowering the lessors to re-enter in cases of breach of covenant. At the time of execution of the lease by the lessors a memorandum was signed by them and to this as well as to the lease the seal of the defendant Company was affixed pursuant to the resolution of 1st March, 1910. This memorandum, so far as is material here, is in the words following: Memorandum...intended to be read as if endorsed on...lease of even date herewith...whereby in order to make quite clear the covenants in such lease as to the incidence of the liability for payment of rates it is mutually agreed: The lessors will pay and satisfy the landlord's property-tax or land-tax or any Mun ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... -to be levied and paid upon the unimproved value of lands, came into being as a fiscal measure of the Commonwealth. 7. The relevant section of the Land and Income Tax Assessment Act of 1895, to which reference has been made, provided for assessment by Commissioners appointed by the Crown and the annual levy for the use of the Crown, at such rate as Parliament should from time to time enact per pound sterling of the assessed value of lands situate in New South Wales, of a "land-tax" to be paid: "by every owner of land in respect of all land of which he is such owner for every pound of the unimproved value," subject to an immaterial deduction. The process of "suspension" of the land-tax of 1895 in New South Wales is succinctly described in the case for the appellants to this effect:. In 1906 and 1908 the Parliament of New South Wales adopted the policy of abandoning the State land-tax in favour of a rate upon the unimproved capital of land to be imposed by the Local Government for Local Government purposes. This was effected as to Sydney by the Sydney Corporation Amendment Act, 1908, which provided for the levying (starting with the year 1909) in addi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ellants, in their case, and by the arguments advanced at the hearing, have contended (a) that the yearly charge imposed by the Bridge Act is in its nature "neither a land-tax nor ejusdem generis with land-tax;" (6) that--applying the language of the second memorandum--it does not come within the words: "land tax at present assessed and any future land tax or unimproved capital value" and (c),: that the words 'land tax' have acquired a settled meaning in New South Wales and mean a tax imposed by the State Land Acts upon all lands within the State or tax substituted therefor," 13. The judgment of the Supreme Court, it was contended, would expose the lessors of the premises to peril of being held liable for local burdens unlimited in kind or amount regardless of the lessees' general acceptance of the obligations in respect of the same under the terms of the lease. Upon the latter topic reference was made to the fact, as stated in the appellants' case, that: "in the year 1916 the basis of assessment for Municipal rates in Sydney was by Statute so changed that ordinary Municipal rates became payable on the basis of unimproved capital value& ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... bject to the provision in the lease and the first memorandum for payment of the City rates by the lessees,' any land-tax or Municipal-tax upon unimproved capital value should be borne by the lessors? Secondly, and if the latter view is correct, does the "bridge-tax" fall within the ambit of the lessors' liability so defined? 17. Some evidence of fact is always admissible to assist in judicial determination of the true meaning of the language of parties to an agreement, though the parties may not testify as to their intention. Land-tax in England could be defined by well known facts in the law, including various Statutes. Land-tax in New South Wales would, no doubt, be definable in a like mode in a wide range of cases. Here also there are facts in the law and matters apparent in the successive acts of the parties which cannot be excluded from consideration. While the fiscal changes of 1908-10 were being worked out the parties made three attempts to define the lessors' liabilities. The bare words in the lease "All rates, taxes...and all outgoings whatever, whether parliamentary, Municipal, local or otherwise...now or hereafter...imposed landlords, property ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s ever been used in New South Wales...in any other sense then a tax on land directly imposed by the State," and again "It seems to me that what the parties desired to express was that the covenant should extend to all taxes except taxes on land directly imposed by a Legislature having power to impose them. 20. Had the lease in the present case stood alone the judgment in Solomon v. New South Wales Sports Club, Ltd. 19 Com. L. Rep. 698 would have made any dispute between the parties improbable if not impossible. As matters of the definition of "a land-tax" which is given by the learned Chief Justice may well be applied here. The bridge-tax is a tax on land directly imposed by the Legislature of the State. 21. The appellants contention that though directly imposed by the Legislature, the bridge-tax is not a land-tax, was supported by argument founded in particular cm two manifest facts. The bridge-tax does not extend to land generally throughout New South Wales, but to a limited area comprising the City of Sydney and certain specified shares, and the purpose of the taxis not that of providing the public revenue for the common purposes of the State but of providi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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