The appellant and his brother, who were the two partners of a law firm, moved the office of the partnership to premises owned by them as equal tenants in common. In order to adjust for the fact that their partnership interests were not also equal, they commenced to charge the partnership "rent" for the use of their premises.
S. 72(3) of the Law and Property Act 1925 (similar to s. 41 of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act (Ontario)) provided that "a person may convey land to or vest land in himself." It was accepted that "the singular ‘person' must include the plural so that two persons may…convey land to, or vest lands in themselves" (p. 505, per Viscount Simonds).
Lord Denning stated (at p. 513) that at common law one or two persons could not covenant with himself or themselves and "neither could one person covenant with himself and others jointly." He then went on to find (at p. 514) that s. 72(3) did not alter this result so that two persons "cannot grant a tenancy to themselves."
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