St Edmondsbury and Ipswich Diocesan Board of Finance v Clark (No 2): ChD 1975

A reservation contained In a conveyance must be construed in the context of the deed as a whole, and in the light of the surrounding circumstances.
Held: Sir John Pennycuick said: ‘Mr Vinelott contended that the proper method of construction is first to construe the words of the instrument in isolation and then look at the surrounding circumstances in order to see whether they cut down the prima facie meaning of the words. It seems to us that this approach is contrary to well-established principle. It is no doubt true that in order to construe an instrument one looks first at the instrument and no doubt one may form a preliminary impression upon such inspection. But it is not until one has considered the instrument and the surrounding circumstances in conjunction that one concludes the process of construction. Of course, one may have words so unambiguous that no surrounding circumstances could affect their construction. But that is emphatically not the position here, where the reservation is in the loosest terms, i.e. simply ‘right of way.’ Indeed those words call aloud for an examination of the surrounding circumstances and, with all respect, Mr Vinelott’s contention, even if well-founded, seems to us to lead nowhere in the present case.’

Judges:

Sir John Pennycuick

Citations:

[1975] 1 WLR 468, [1975] 1 All ER 772

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

CitedStanton, Mills; Mills v Blackwell and Blackwell CA 15-Jul-1999
Two strips of land were adjacent but separated by a wall with a gate. The owner of one plot was given broadly phrased rights of way over both strips. He removed part of the wall over the neighbour’s land in order to make full use of the wider strip. . .
CitedSweet and Another v Sommer and Another ChD 25-Jun-2004
Part of land had been sold off. By oversight no right of way had been taken in favour of the retained land. The dominant owner argued that by demolition of a building a means of access could be found and that therefore no right of way by necessity . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land

Updated: 23 March 2022; Ref: scu.254432