Land in Northholt was granted under the 1841 Act for use as a school. In 1907 the school was closed, another school having been opened by the local authority nearby. Thereafter the building was used only once a week for a Sunday school. The Board of Education contended that there had been no reverter because although the land was no longer being used for the general education of poor persons, use as a Sunday school provided them with ‘religious and useful knowledge’. The argument of Mr Cave KC for the successor to the grantor was that a reverter occurred if the land ceased to be used for the statutory purpose chosen by the grantor. It did not matter that it was still being used for some other purpose which he could have chosen but did not: ‘The provision for reverter means that the land is to revert if it ceases to be used for such of the purposes of the Act as are specified in the grant, namely, in this case, the first purpose only.’
Held: Warrington J accepted this argument, saying that the Act specified three purposes and that ‘the grantor may select his own purpose from amongst those three’. ‘you must read ‘the purposes in this Act mentioned’ as meaning such of those purposes as are applicable to the case in question’ and ‘looking at the substance of the matter, as I consider I am bound to do, I must hold that the premises have ceased to be used for the purposes in the Act mentioned.’
Judges:
Warrington J
Citations:
[1910] 1 Ch 92
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Applied – Habermehl v Attorney General 1996
Land was granted for use as a school for the education of poor persons in accordance with the principles of the National Society. In 1876 the school had become a ‘provided school’ run by a School Board under the Education Act 1870. That meant that, . .
Cited – Fraser and Another v Canterbury Diocesan Board of Finance and others HL 27-Oct-2005
Land had been acquired by a deed under the 1841 Act, but had in 1995 ceased to be used as a school ‘for the education of children and adults of the labouring manufacturing and other poorer classes . . And for no other purpose ‘. Under the Act, the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Land, Limitation
Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.231636