Hughes v Metropolitan Rly [1877] 2 App Cas 439

• Plaintiff was a lessee of property that Defendant served a repair notice which had to be complied with within a time limit or Plaintiff would face ejection.

• Plaintiff offered to sell the property to Defendant and negotiations continued for several months. Eventually they broke off, the repairs having been neglected and Plaintiff was ejected.

• HL ruled that ongoing negotiations had the effect of suspending a notice to repair property, i.e. the time limit within which to repair the property was effective from the point that negotiations ceased.

Lord Cairns

• It would be inequitable not to suspend the repairs since a party who thought that they might sell the remainder of the lease would obviously not undertake repairs.

• There was an implied promise in the correspondence that the repairs notice would be delayed, and therefore it had to be ruled that the repairs notice was delayed during negotiations.