Valid legal assignment of existing leasehold interest required before compensation claim can be maintained under the statute.

A statutory right to compensation available only to a lessee or his legal assigns depends on a valid assignment of an existing interest at the expiry of the lease. A later deed poll could not transfer an interest that no longer existed in the company, and a purported transfer of a non-existent legal interest was ineffective at law. Irregular distribution of assets on liquidation did not itself create legal assign status or cure the absence of proper assignment. On that basis, the respondent was not entitled to compensation, and the appointment of the arbitrator could not be sustained.

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Issues: Whether the respondent had become the legal assign of the original lessees so as to be entitled to claim compensation under the St. John's Municipal Acts, and whether the appointment of the third arbitrator by the Supreme Court could stand.

Analysis: The statutory right to compensation was available only to the lessee or his assigns, and the assign contemplated by the legislation had to be the legal assign of the term at the expiration of the lease. The respondent's title depended upon a chain of dealings after the lease had already stood in the name of the company. The later deed poll of 1930 could not operate as an effective assignment of an interest which had no present existence in the company at that time. A transfer of a non-existent legal interest is inoperative at law, and the irregular distribution of assets on liquidation did not itself make the shareholders legal assigns or cure the absence of a proper assignment.

Conclusion: The respondent was not a legal assign within the meaning of the statute and was not entitled to claim compensation. The appointment of the arbitrator therefore could not be sustained.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded, and the challenged order was set aside with costs awarded to the appellant.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory right confined to a lessee or his legal assigns cannot be enforced unless the claimant shows a valid legal assignment of an existing interest; a purported assignment of a non-existent interest is ineffectual at law.

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