Interpretation

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, “action” includes any proceeding in a court of law; “duty” includes any debt due to Her Majesty under any Act; “foreshore” means the shore and bed of the sea and of any tidal water, below the line of the medium high tide between the spring tides and the neap tides; “land” includes corporeal hereditaments and rent charges, and any legal or equitable estate or interest therein, including an interest in the proceeds of the sale of land held upon trust for sale, but except as aforesaid, does not include any incorporeal hereditament; “parent” means father or mother, step-father or step-mother, adopted father or adopted mother, grandfather or grandmother, whether any such relationship is legitimate or illegitimate; 6 “personal estate” and “personal property” do not include chattels real; “rent” includes a rent charge and a rent service; “rent charge” means any annuity or periodical sum of money charged upon or payable out of land, or a rent service or interest on a mortgage on land; “settled land”, “statutory owner” and “tenant for life” have the same meanings respectively assigned to each of them in the Settled Land Act, 1925, 15 Geo. V.c 18(UK); “ship” includes every description of vessel used in navigation not propelled by oars; “trust” and “trustee” have the same meanings respectively assigned to each of them in the Trusts Act, Cap. 202; “trust for sale”, in relation to land, means an immediate binding trust for sale, whether or not exercisable at the request or with the consent of any person, and with or without a power at discretion to postpone the sale. (2) For the purposes of this Act, a person shall be deemed to be under a disability while he is an infant, or of unsound mind. (3) For the purposes of subsection (2) of this section, but without prejudice to the generality thereof, a person shall be conclusively presumed to be of unsound mind while he, (a) is detained in pursuance of any enactment authorising the detention of persons of unsound mind or criminal persons of unsound mind; or (b) is receiving treatment as a voluntary patient under any Act, being treatment which follows without any interval such detention as aforesaid. 7 (4) A person shall be deemed to claim through another person, if he became entitled by, through, under or by the act of that other person to the right claimed, and any person whose estate or interest might have been barred by a person entitled to an entailed interest in possession shall be deemed to claim through the person so entitled, Provided that a person becoming entitled to any estate or interest by virtue of a special power of appointment shall not be deemed to claim through the appointor. (5) References in this Act to a right of action to recover land shall include references to a right to enter into possession of the land or, in the case of rent charges, to distrain for arrears of rent, and references to the bringing of such an action shall include references to the making of such an entry or distress. (6) In the case of rent charges, references in this Act to the possession of land shall be construed as references to the receipt of the rent, and references to the date of dispossession or discontinuance of possession of land shall be construed as references to the date of the last receipt of rent. (7) In Part III of this Act, references to a right of action shall include references to a cause of action and to a right to receive money secured by a mortgage or charge on any property and to apply for an order for sale to recover such money, and to a right to receive a share or interest in the personal estate of a deceased person, and references to the date of the accrual of a right of action shall, (a) in the case of an action for an account, be construed as references to the date on which the matter arose in respect of which an account is claimed; (b) in the case of an action upon a judgment, be construed as references to the date on which the judgment became enforceable; 8 (c) in the case of action to recover arrears of rent, interest or damages in respect thereof, be construed as references to the date on which the rent or interest became due.