A BRIEF HISTORY OF ADMIRAL'S COURT
PART 2: The 1900's
18th October 1901 and Mooragh Hydro Limited called upon the owners of three fourths who had not signed the deed of 23rd October 1897 that had been signed by John Beswick alone.
This omission probably came to light when Mooragh Hydro Limited issued a Debenture for £3,500 to Hall Caine secured on 38-39 (with 40 & 41 as yet unbuilt.)
8th January 1908. Hall Caine foreclosed, having given notice following unpaid interest on 9th February 1907 and appointed Thomas Cowley Receiver on 13th February 1907 and sold to highest bidder, Daniel Frank Putt for £3,855.
On the same day Daniel Putt conveys to Hall Caine and admits that consideration of £3,859.4.10d as paid by him was in fact Hall Caine's money. Was this a stitch up or not?
15th March 1920. Hall Caine, now knighted as Sir Hall Caine, sells the property to Ramsey Bay Hotel Company Limited for £7,500 (Comprising 1,000 £1 shares and £6,500 cash.)
Property now seems to be all four plots, and Tennis courts etc.,
24th November 1927. Ramsey Bay Hotel Company Limited was wound up and put into liquidation.
27th January 1928, The Liquidator sold the Hotel to Misses. Gladys Annie, Bertha Elizabeth and Mabel Clarke for £3,750.
17th February 1938. Misses Clarkes seemed to have borrowed £3,250 from Isle of Man Bank.
24th March 1939 Gladys Annie died and left her share of the property to the two surviving sisters.
4th January 1940. The sisters entered into a Deed of Arrangement and conveyed the property to Harry Edwin Kneale as Trustee. This was not a typical Deed of Arrangement but appears to have been made by the ladies, as Executrices of their sisters estate for monies due to them in their personal capacity.
26th January 1944. The two debtors (sic) had been paid by realisation of Personal assets (whose?)This is unclear. Did the ladies owe money to the business which is what a Debtor indicates? If so why pay them money? Or does this somehow refer to IOM Bank. either way, there is a new Mortgage in favour of IOM Bank dated 12th November 1943
Whatever it means the Property was now re-conveyed to the two surviving Clerk ladies by the Trustee, Kneale, on 1st May 1944 by Court Order. The ladies were now living in Woking Surrey.
On 31st October 1946, the ladies, now of Ballure Mount, Ramsey, sold the property to Ramsey Bay Hotel Limited for £9,500 stated to be £3,250 for the Mortgage and £6,250 cash to the Vendor. This indicates that RBHLtd took over responsibility for the Monies due to the Bank.
Ramsey Bay Hotel Limited (not to be confused with Ramsey Bay Hotel Company Limited which was liquidated in 1928) was incorporated in July 1946 with a share capital of £2,000 in £1 shares.
Directors and shareholders were William Edward Thomas and Mrs Florence Pauline LAWSON.
During 1947 the company issued Debentures of £17,000 including one to Mrs Annie Smith, of Ramsey Bay Hotel, for £2,000. Total indebteness was stated to be £6,455 on 31st December 1959.
On 12th May 1961 Ramsey Bay Hotel Limited sold the whole of the now merged property (plots 36-41 inclusive) to CHA (a limited company that had a licence to omit the word "Limited") of Fallowfield, Manchester for £6,000.
At some time following there may have been more buildings erected and the whole property was renamed "Mooragh House".
30th August 1983. Country-Wide Holidays Association (Still no 'Limited') sold "Mooragh House" to John BEDFORD and Theresa Rose ROLAND, both stated to be c/o Kensington Road Douglas, for £40,000.
16th September 1983 an affidavit was sworn that CHA had changed its name by resolution to Country-wide Holidays Association on 18th January 1964.
Something drastic must have happened to "Mooragh House" as on 12th June 1986 Bedford and Roland, now living in St.Helier, Jersey, sold the property to Barry Dalby for only £1,250.
1st August 1986 Dalby sold to Yanchep Limited whose Registered Office was given as "Mooragh House" So was the property still extant? Consideration of £2,500 but this now included Plot 46 "Shaftesbury". At some time Yanchep changed it name to "Shaftesbury Leisure Limited" because on 30th March 1987 Shaftesbury Leisure Limited sold the original Mooragh House plot to Chadacre Investments Limited, Bourne Concourse, Ramsey, for the same £1,250.
Yet only two years later on 18th February 1988, Chadacre sold to Max Frederic Wichers, of Viking House, Ramsey, for £25,000.
Wichers, a US Resident, had already changed his name by Deed Poll on 24th August 1987 to Frank Fairclough but seems to have kept the name "Max". He also seems to have 'overlooked' mentioning this to his Advocate.
Now this tale really gets messy. Lawyers make fundamental errors of fact.
Evidently Frank Fairclough promptly sold on Mooragh House to Lockville Limited on 5th July 1988 for £25,000, the same price as he paid for it. Why? There had been a devastating fire on 4th February 1988, but this was BEFORE Frank Fairclough bought it (in the name of Frederic Wichers.) The Conveyance had NOT been recorded at the General Registry (although there is no Legal compulsion so to do in Manx Law). Again Why?
On the same day, 5th July 1988 Lockville Limited entered into a Joint Venture Agreement with Trianon Estates Limited to build thirty 2 bed apartments and three Penthouses with various fees and percentages of sale accruing to Trianon. Frank Fairclough and wife Dylys to be retained as Sales Agents for 1% of the Total Sales Income and retaining an option to buy one Penthouse and two apartments at a discount of 10% before the conclusion of the venture.
6th July 1989. Something went wrong and Trianon Ltd., Registered a 'Caveat' on the property. Quite how this can be done to Deeds that are NOT recorded is not disclosed.
The Lawyers also made fundamental errors in the drafting of the Caveat which later had to be corrected by Affidavits. The scheduled Property was described as a "Burnt out ruin" in the Caveat but this wording did NOT appear in the Schedule of the actual Conveyance referred to. They also wrote "Chadaire" Limited instead of "Chadacre" and Max Frank Fairclough as the purchaser whereas in fact it was bought by him as Max Frederic Wichers. The latter was probably careless drafting but the former is a manifest error. The name on the Deed is clearly shown as Wichers.
So by means of Affidavits of 26th September 1991, Fairclough again swore to his acquired name thus correcting the 'oversight' of 18th February 1988 and the error in the Caveat of 1989.
Prior to this Deemster Corrin had heard Fairclough's Petition of 19th July 1990 to have the Caveat lifted. An agreement had been reached whereby he would pay Trianon Ltd., 25% of the market value of the land if sold or 25% of the valuation within 12 months of the development of the property. Deemster Corrin thus ordered the Caveat to be removed.
However all documents relating to Faircloughs petition of 19th July 1990 refer to the Petitioner as Max Frederic Fairclough (ie. NOT Max Frank Fariclough.) This is just too careless for words.
However Fairclough had not done yet and a further "Release" was granted on 11th September 1991 whereby Max Frederick Fairclough (now with a "k" and certainly not Frank) would pay £30,000 lump sum to Trianon in full and final settlement. This was due to Max Frank Fairclough having agreed to sell the land to JG Kelly Homes Limited.
One is driven to wonder what on earth really took place with all this wheeling and dealing between 1986 and 1991? How, after selling the property to Lockville for £25,000 in 1988 did Max Fairclough still come to own it in 1991? What happened to the Lockville Conveyance? Was it conveyed back to Fairclough or just torn up?
How can a property passed to Max Frederic Fairclough by order of Deemster Corrin end up being owned by Max Frank Fairclough without a correcting Affidavit?
It seems to rival that of the Beswicks, Taubmans and Hall Cain one hundred years earlier.
On 16th September 1991 (Max) Frank Fairclough signed an Agreement with J G Kelly Homes Limited to sell the property for £120,000 with 10% £12,000 being paid by way of Deposit and the balance on the following day. He appears to have been paid in full twice for the same property, once in 1988 with £25,000 by Lockville Limited and again in 1991 by JG Kellys. Even after having paid off Trianon with £30,000 he shows a profit of £90,000 on this deal.
Still Mr Fairclough was not done with the property and sought to retain an interest:-
Under the agreement with JGK he retained the use of an outbuilding on the site, rent free, until building work commenced and he received the option to purchase up to three of the apartments as built measured and paid for by relationship to the square footage of the floor space of Apartment or Apartments. Should the development not proceed Fairclough also had the right to a further 25% of the price already paid to him or a percentage thereof relating to the undeveloped portion. He would also receive £54,000 for his unused options should Kellys sell the property without the options above.
Evidently Mr Fairclough or Lockville or Trianon must have obtained Planning consent for the development as this sale was conveyed with that benefit attached.
The Purchase took place on 8th October 1991.
Not one of the conditions regarding options and funds is referred to in the Deed.
Max Frank Fairclough never exercised any option either by design or oversight.