The question whether the statutory purposes for which the land is held are incompatible with its use by the public as a public highway is one of fact and to be determined on the basis of the facts as they are and can reasonably be foreseen to be.
Lord Radcliffe confessed to a want of ‘sufficient ingenuity’ to reconcile conflicting strands of authority in this area, and: ‘The birthright of a statutory corporation includes all those powers and rights with which it is thought proper to invest it at its creation: and I do not think it easy for a court of law to decide merely by the nature of the thing which of those powers are inalienably entailed and which can be disentailed and disposed of by ordinary grant.’
Judges:
Lord Radcliffe
Citations:
[1958] AC 126
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
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: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Land
Updated: 16 May 2022; Ref: scu.677585
