Land had been registered as a town or village green but wrongly so. The claimant had sought rectification, but the respondents argued that the long time elapsed after registration should defeat the request.
Held: The appeal were solely as to the way the lapse of time may be relevant to whether or not it wa just to rectify register. The statute itself laid don no time limit for the application of the power to rectify, and the section contained no bias for or against rectification, and: ‘although the interests of the wider public are not irrelevant, the section is principally focussing on justice as between the applicant for rectification of a registration and the local inhabitants who are the beneficiaries of that registration.’
Applying tose principles, the court decided to allow one appeal and reject the oher.
Lord Neuberger, President, Lady Hale, Deputy President, Lord Sumption, Lord Toulson, Lord Hodge
[2014] UKSC 7, [2014] 1 AC 1072, [2014] 1 P and CR 24, [2014] 2 WLR 300, [2014] 2 All ER 1, [2014] JPL 745, [2014] WLR(D) 51, [2014] BLGR 249, [2014] 1 P andCR 24, UKSC 2012/0089
Bailii, WLRD, Bailii Summary, SC Summary, SC
Commons Registration Act 1965 1(2)(a), Commons Registration (New Land) Regulations, SI 1969 No 1843, Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 22
England and Wales
Citing:
At First Instance – Paddico (267) Ltd v Kirklees Metropolitan Council and Others ChD 23-Jun-2011
The company sought the rectification of the register of village greens to remove an entry relating to its land, saying that the Council had not properly considered the need properly to identify the locality which was said to have enjoyed the rights . .
Appeal from – Adamson v Paddico (267) Ltd CA 7-Mar-2012
Appeal was made against an order that the register of town and village greens be amended by the deletion of an entry. . .
Cited – Regina v Oxfordshire County Council and Another, Ex Parte Sunningwell Parish Council HL 25-Jun-1999
When setting out to establish that a piece of land has become a village green with rights of common, the tests are similar to those used in the law of prescription and adverse possession. Accordingly, there is no need to establish a belief in those . .
Cited – Regina v City of Sunderland ex parte Beresford HL 13-Nov-2003
Land had been used as a park for many years. The council land owner refused to register it as a common, saying that by maintaining the park it had indicated that the use was by consent and licence, and that prescription did not apply.
Held: . .
Cited – Oxfordshire County Council v Oxford City Council and others HL 24-May-2006
Application had been made to register as a town or village green an area of land which was largely a boggy marsh. The local authority resisted the application wanting to use the land instead for housing. It then rejected advice it received from a . .
Cited – Lewis, Regina (on The Application of) v Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council and Another SC 3-Mar-2010
The claimants sought to have land belonging to the council registered as a village green to prevent it being developed. They said that it had for more than twenty years been used by the community for various sports. The council replied that it had . .
Cited – Regina v Dairy Produce Quota Tribunal for England and Wales, Ex parte Caswell HL 17-May-1990
The House sought to reconcile section 31 of the 1981 Act, with RSC Order 53 r4 as to the time within which judicial review proceedings must be brought.
Held: Whenever there was a failure to act promptly or within three months there was ‘undue . .
Cited – Regina v Newbury District Council and Newbury and District Agricultural Society ex parte Chieveley Parish Council CA 23-Jul-1998
Planning authority could not reserve matters where outline approval given under General Development Order. A three year delay between the decision, and the application for judicial review was an undue delay defeating that application. Undue delay . .
Cited – Regina v Bassetlaw District Council, Ex parte Oxby CA 11-Dec-1997
Hobhouse LJ stated that ‘if it has been clearly established . . that a planning consent was improperly and invalidly granted, then it should, in principle, be declared to be void’. . .
Cited – Smith v Clay 10-May-1767
Long Delay in Application Debarred Remedy
Review was sought of a decree pronounced some thirty or forty years before. The defect was apparent on the face of the record.
Held: The review was barred by the length of time elapsed.
Lord Camden LC applied the doctrine of laches, . .
Cited – Corbett v Restormel Borough Council and Land and Property Limited CA 8-Aug-1997
. .
Cited – Corbett v Restormel Borough Council and Another CA 2-Mar-2001
Schiemann LJ said: ‘However, as is well known, there clashes with this principle of legal certainty another principle which is also of great value – the principle of legality which requires that administrators act in accordance with the law and . .
Cited – Bahamas Hotel Maintenance and Allied Workers Union v Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union and Others PC 23-Feb-2011
Two trade union disputed the right of the other to be registered with and to use a similar name to their own. There had been considerable delays in the conduct of the judicial review proceeding.
Held: The Board upheld the trial judge’s refusal . .
Cited – Wright v Vanderplank 20-Jul-1855
In every case of a gift to a parent by a child, shortly after the child attains majority, the Court looks with jealousy upon the transaction, more especially when the parent has, during the minority, been guardian of the child’s property, and in . .
Cited – Weld v Petre 1929
Delay simpliciter is immaterial in the case of equitable remedies. A mortgagor’s redemption suit was held not time-barred under laches despite his delay of twenty-six years. . .
Cited – Burroughs v Abbott 1922
The court granted rectification of an instrument after a delay of twelve years. . .
Cited – RB Policies at Lloyd’s v Butler 1949
A car insured by the plaintiffs had been stolen by an unknown person in June 1940. In January 1947 the car was found in the possession of the defendant who it seems had ‘given good consideration for it without knowledge that it was a stolen car’. It . .
Cited – Fisher v Brooker and Others HL 30-Jul-2009
The claimant sought a share in the royalties from the song ‘A whiter shade of pale’ but had delayed his claim for 38 years. He had contributed the organ solo which had contributed significantly to the song’s success. He now sought a share of future . .
Cited – A v Hoare HL 30-Jan-2008
Each of six claimants sought to pursue claims for damages for sexual assaults which would otherwise be time barred under the 1980 Act after six years. They sought to have the House depart from Stubbings and allow a discretion to the court to extend . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Land, Equity
Updated: 29 November 2021; Ref: scu.521156
