Category: Land

Dalton v Henry Angus and Co: CA 1878

Citations:

(1878) 4 QBD 162

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Dalton v Henry Angus and Co 1877
Fry J said: ‘ . .I cannot imagine any case of acquiescence in which there is not shown to be in the servient owner: 1, a knowledge of the acts done; 2, a power in him to stop the acts or to sue in respect of them; and 3, an abstinence on his part . .

Cited by:

Appeal from – Dalton v Henry Angus and Co HL 14-Jun-1881
The court explained the doctrine of lost modern grant. Where there has been more than 20 years’ uninterrupted enjoyment of an easement, and that enjoyment has the necessary qualities to fulfil the requirements of prescription, then unless, for some . .
Cited – Tehidy Minerals Ltd v Norman CA 1971
The fact that land had been requisitioned by the Ministry of Agriculture between 1941 and 1960 and the 20-odd years’ user relied on as having created the rights had preceded 1941 was a bar to a prescriptive claim to grazing rights under the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land

Updated: 07 October 2022; Ref: scu.430351

Smith v Webster: CA 1876

P verbally agreed to buy an inn from D. On the next day D told his solicitors that he had entered into a verbal arrangement for the sale and instructed them to prepare an agreement. On the same day they forwarded a draft formal contract to P’s solicitors under cover of a letter which said: ‘[D] has been with us today, and stated that he had arranged with your client [P] for sale to the latter of the Golden Lion for andpound;950. We therefore send herewith draft contract for your perusal and approval.’
Held: This was insufficient as a note or memorandum. James LJ held that the only authority given to the solicitor was to prepare a formal document. Even if the letter had said that D had ‘told us that he has sold the property to you for andpound;950’ this would merely have been the communication of a fact. The signature would not make it a binding memorandum, not being affixed eo intuitu. The draft sent was not the same contract as had been agreed and a statement of the reason why it was being sent was not a memorandum signed by someone authorised by the person interested to sign it as binding.
Bagallay LJ regarded the agreement reached as conditional upon a formal contract and said that the authority conferred on the solicitor by D was not authority to convert it into an absolute agreement.
Lush LJ held that in order to satisfy the statute a note or memorandum must be one which the principal had authorised the agent to sign as a record of the transaction and that the authority actually given to the solicitors was merely to prepare a formal draft contract to be sent to the other side for perusal and approval.

Judges:

James LJ, Bagallay LJ and Lush LJ

Citations:

[1876] 3 Ch D 49

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Limited – John Griffiths Cycle Corporation, Limited v Humber and Co, Limited 1899
Smith v Webster was not to be taken as meaning that the agent must have had authority to sign the document as a record of the contract. All that Smith v Webster decided was that, in order to satisfy the Statute, it must be shown that the agent . .
Cited – Golden Ocean Group Ltd v Salgaocar Mining Industries Pvt Ltd and Another ComC 21-Jan-2011
The defendants sought to set aside orders allowing the claimants to serve proceedings alleging repudiation of a charterparty in turn allowing a claim against the defendants under a guarantee. The defendant said the guarantee was unenforceable under . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Land

Updated: 07 October 2022; Ref: scu.430066

Greene v Chelsea Borough Council: CA 1954

Lord Denning MR said: ‘Knowledge or notice of the danger is only a defence when the plaintiff is free to act upon that knowledge or notice so as to avoid the danger’.

Judges:

Lord Denning MR

Citations:

[1954] 2 QBD 127

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Roles v Nathan CA 15-May-1963
Two chimney sweeps were overcome by fumes, and died in the basement of the Manchester Assembly Rooms. Whilst occupied working in flues (against advice), a boiler had been lit.
Held: (Majority – Pearson LJ dissenting) The land-owner’s appeal . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Land, Negligence

Updated: 07 October 2022; Ref: scu.568158

The Mayor Commonalty and Citizens of London v Samede (St Paul’s Churchyard Camp Representative) and Others: CA 22 Feb 2012

The defendants sought to appeal against an order for them to vacate land outside St Paul’s Cathedral in London which they occupied as a protest.
Held: The application for leave to appeal failed. The only possible ground for appeal was on the question of whether the protestors human right to free speech had been interrupted. It had, but the interruption was not so substantial as to amount to an infringement of the rights.

Judges:

Lord Neuberger MR, Stanley Burnton, McFarlane LJJ

Citations:

[2012] EWCA Civ 160, [2012] PTSR 1624, [2012] HRLR 14, [2012] WLR(D) 41, [2012] 2 All ER 1039, [2012] BLGR 372

Links:

Bailii, WLRD

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – City of London v Samede and Others QBD 18-Jan-2012
The claimant sought an order for possession of land outside St Paul’s cathedral occupied by the protestor defendants, consisting of ‘a large number of tents, between 150 and 200 at the time of the hearing, many of them used by protestors, either . .
Cited – Kuznetsov v Russia ECHR 23-Oct-2008
The applicant had taken part in a small demonstration which, for a short time, obstructed access to a public court building.
Held: The court: ‘reiterate[d] at the outset that the right to freedom of assembly covers both private meetings and . .
Cited – Hall and Others v Mayor of London (on Behalf of The Greater London Authority) CA 16-Jul-2010
The appellants sought leave to appeal against an order for possession of Parliament Square on which the claimants had been conducting a demonstration (‘the Democracy Village’).
Held: Leave was refused save for two appellants whose cases were . .
Cited – Udall v Capri Lighting Ltd (in liquidation) CA 1987
A claim was made for the price of goods sold and delivered. The defendant’s solicitor gave an oral undertaking to his counterpart to procure the execution by directors of his client company of charges over their homes in return for an adjournment . .
Cited – G and E v Norway ECHR 3-Oct-1983
The court considered the protection to be given to native peoples such as the Saami of Northern Norway. . .
Cited – G v Germany ECHR 1987
ECHR (Commission) The applicants had conducted a sit-in, to protest against nuclear arms, and which obstructed a highway, which gave access to a US army barracks in Germany, for twelve minutes every hour.
Cited – Perna v Italy ECHR 25-Jul-2001
. .
Cited – Laporte, Regina (on the application of ) v Chief Constable of Gloucestershire HL 13-Dec-2006
The claimants had been in coaches being driven to take part in a demonstration at an air base. The defendant police officers stopped the coaches en route, and, without allowing any number of the claimants to get off, returned the coaches to London. . .
Approved – Tabernacle v Secretary of State for Defence CA 5-Feb-2009
The claimant sought judicial review to test the validity of the bye-laws which prohibited them from camping on public land to support their demonstration.
Held: The bye-laws violated the claimant’s right to freedom of assembly and of . .
Cited – Manchester City Council v Pinnock SC 9-Feb-2011
The council tenant had wished to appeal following a possession order made after her tenancy had been demoted. The court handed down a supplemental judgment to give effect to its earlier decision. The Court had been asked ‘whether article 8 of the . . .

Cited by:

Cited – Lord Carlile and Others v Secretary of State for The Home Department Admn 16-Mar-2012
The claimant had invited an Iranian dissident to speak in Parliament, and now challenged the decision of the Home Secretary to refuse her a visa on the basis that her exclusion was not conducive to the public good. She was a member of an . .
Cited – Roberts and Others v Regina CACD 6-Dec-2018
Sentencing of Political Protesters
The defendants appealed against sentences for causing a public nuisance. They had been protesting against fracking by climbing aboard a lorry and blocking a main road for several days.
Held: The appeals from immediate custodial sentences were . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Human Rights

Updated: 07 October 2022; Ref: scu.451456

Hollins v Verney: CA 1884

A claim for a presumption of a lost modern grant must include an assertion that the enjoyment of the carriageway was continuous or uninterrupted.
Lindley LJ said: ‘It is difficult, if not impossible, to enunciate a principle which will reconcile all the decisions, and still more all the dicta to be found in them; the only safe course is to fall back on the language of the statute, to give effect to it, and to introduce into it nothing which is not to be found there. It is sufficient for the present case to observe that the statute expressly requires actual enjoyment as of right for the full period of twenty years before action. No use can be sufficient which does not raise a reasonable inference of such a continuous enjoyment. Moreover, as the enjoyment which is pointed out by the statute is an enjoyment which is open as well as of right, it seems to follow that no actual user can be sufficient to satisfy the statute, unless during the whole of the statutory term (whether acts of user be proved in each year or not) the user is enough at any rate to carry to the mind of a reasonable person who is in possession of the servient tenement, the fact that a continuous right to enjoyment is being asserted, and ought to be resisted if such right is not recognised, and if resistance to it is intended. Can an user which is confined to the rare occasions on which the alleged right is supposed in this instance to have been exercised, satisfy even this test? It seems to us that it cannot: that it is not, and could not reasonably be treated as the assertion of a continuous right to enjoy; and when there is no assertion by conduct of a continuous right to enjoy, it appears to us that there cannot be an actual enjoyment within the meaning of the statute. Without therefore professing to be able to draw the line sharply between long and short periods of non-user, without holding that non-user for a year or even more is necessarily fatal in all cases, without attempting to define that which the statute has left indefinite, we are of opinion that no jury can properly find that the right claimed by the defendant in this case has been established by evidence of such limited user as was mainly relied upon, and as was contended by the defendant to be sufficient in the present case’

Judges:

Lindley LJ

Citations:

(1884) 13 QBD 304, [1884] LJQB 430, [1884] 51 LT 753, [1884] 48 JP 580, [1884] WR 5

Statutes:

Prescription Act 1832

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Hollins v Verney 1883
A private right of way was claimed under the 1832 Act by virtue of use to remove wood from an adjoining close. . .

Cited by:

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 – Llewellyn and Another v Lorey and Another CA 3-Feb-2011
The parties disputed whether a right of way was exerciseable for commercial as well as private purposes.
Held: The judge had made a finding as to use which was not supported by the evidence before him. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land

Updated: 07 October 2022; Ref: scu.402566

Dunbar’s Trustees v The British Fisheries Society: HL 12 Jul 1878

A feucontract contained a clause of relief by the superior in favour of the vassals ‘to free and relieve’ them ‘of the whole cess or land-tax, feuduties or other duties, ministers’ stipends, schoolmasters’ salaries, and other public burdens due and exigible out of the whole lands and subjects hereby feued, or that may become due and payable for or from the same in all time coming.’ Held (aff. judgment of the Court of Session) [ a] (1) that such clauses cover all burdens except such as have been ‘imposed by supervenient legislation;’ [ b] that they therefore cover poor-rates; and [ c] that liability under them is not restricted to the proportion of assessments effeiring to the feuduty; and [2] that under the clause above quoted the measure of the sum demandable in relief was not limited by the amount of the feuduty.
Held [ aff. judgment of Court of Session] that assessments imposed under certain Private Acts relating to the Caithness County and Wick Burgh Roads, passed in 1830, 1838, and 1860, were not covered by an obligation in a feucontract, dated in 1823, to relieve a vassal from public burdens payable ‘now ‘or ‘in all time coming.’

Judges:

Lord Chancellor, Lord Hatherley, Lord Blackburn, and Lord Gordon

Citations:

[1878] UKHL 772, 15 SLR 772

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

Scotland

Land

Updated: 06 October 2022; Ref: scu.646310

Gardner v Beresford’s Trustees: HL 21 Mar 1878

Writ – Conveyancing (Scotland) Act 1874 (37 and 38 Vict. cap. 94), secs. 38 and 39 – Retrospective Effect.
Held (aff. judgment of Court of Session) that a writing dated in 1873, which consisted of two separate sheets of paper and seven pages, and was subscribed on the last page by the granters and witnesses, but merely initialed on those before it, was an improbative instrument under the Act 1696, c. 15.
Held (aff. judgment of Court of Session) that the provisions of the 38th and 39th sections of the Conveyancing (Scotland) Act 1874, the effect of which is to dispense with certain important solemnities which were previously required in the execution of written deeds, are not retrospective.
Opinion (per Lord Blackburn) that statutes introducing alterations in the law of evidence are, similarly with those which effect a change in forms of procedure, retrospective in their operations.

Judges:

Lord Chancellor, Lord Hatherley, Lord O’Hagan, Lord Blackburn, and Lord Gordon

Citations:

[1878] UKHL 740, 15 SLR 740

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

Scotland

Land

Updated: 06 October 2022; Ref: scu.646301

Regina (SDR) v Bristol City Council: Admn 2 Apr 2012

Land was proposed to be developed as a football stadium. Local opponents said that the land had been used as for recreational purpose by locals for many years and sought its registration as a village green. The inspector agreed, but the council proposed registration of part only, leaving sufficient space for the stadium. Judicial review was now sought of that decision. An original objector stood aside and application was made for substitution by another (there had been threats and intimidation against objectors).

Judges:

Underhill J

Citations:

[2012] EWHC 859 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Planning, Land

Updated: 06 October 2022; Ref: scu.452415

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.

Judges:

Carnwath, Sullivan, Patten LJJ

Citations:

[2012] EWCA Civ 262, [2012] 11 EG 92, [2012] 2 P and CR 1, [2012] BLGR 617

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Commons Registration Act 1965 1(2)(a), Commons Registration (New Land) Regulations, SI 1969 No 1843, Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – 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 . .

Cited by:

Appeal from – Adamson and Others v Paddico (267) Ltd SC 5-Feb-2014
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 . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land

Updated: 05 October 2022; Ref: scu.451898

Taylor v Betterment Properties (Weymouth) Ltd and Another: CA 7 Mar 2012

The respondent owned farmland over which public rights of way were claimed.

Judges:

Carnwath, Sullivan, Patten LJJ

Citations:

[2012] 2 PandCR 3, [2012] EWCA Civ 250

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Commons Registration Act 1965 2, Commons Registration (New Land) Regulations 1969, ountryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 22(1)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Betterment Properties (Weymouth) Ltd v Dorset County Council ChD 2-Mar-2007
The company sought an order removing some 46 acres of land from designation as a village green. The claimant sought the amendment of the register. The parties disputed what evidence beyond that available to the committee making the decision should . .

Cited by:

Cited – Winterburn and Another v Bennett and Another CA 25-May-2016
The court was asked as to the steps which an owner of land must take to prevent others, who were using the land without permission, acquiring rights over the land. The claimants here had ignored clear signs placed on the land which asserted the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land

Updated: 05 October 2022; Ref: scu.451833

Zieleniewski v Scheyd and Another: CA 6 Mar 2012

The parties disputed the existence of a right of way. Briggs J set out the legal principles involved in a claim of interference with a right of way: ‘1) Not every interference with a right of way is actionable. The owner of the right may only object to activities, including obstruction, which substantially interfere with the exercise of the defined right as for the time being is reasonably required by him.
2) The question whether the owner reasonably requires to exercise his right in a particular way is to be addressed by reference to convenience, rather than necessity or even reasonable necessity.
3) Thus, if an obstruction interferes with a particular mode of exercise of the right which it is neither unreasonable nor perverse of the owner to insist upon, then the obstruction will be an actionable interference even if there remain other reasonable ways of exercising the right which many, or even most, people would prefer.’

Judges:

Rix, Moses LJJ, Briggs J

Citations:

[2012] EWCA Civ 247

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – B and Q Plc v Liverpool and Lancashire Properties Ltd ChD 26-Jul-2000
The dominant owner wished to deal with delivery vehicles in a manner where they were left parked awaiting emptying. The servient owner (a lessee) wanted to construct buildings over a large part of the land. The servient owner objected.
Held: . .

Cited by:

Cited – Bramwell and Others v Robinson ChD 21-Oct-2016
Interference with right of way
Neighbour dispute as to right of way.
Held: The defendant had failed to establish the ‘swing space’ he asserted, but otherwise the claimant had in several ways behaved unreasonably and interfered with the use of the right and harrassed the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land

Updated: 05 October 2022; Ref: scu.451834

North Eastern Properties Ltd v Coleman and Another: ChD 20 Aug 2009

The parties agreed for the developer to build and the defendants to purchase several apartments. The properties were not completed after a notice to complete and the purchasers purported to rescind the contract. The claimant completed the flats and in turn served notice to complete. The defendant now said that since the agreement included a discount not shown on the contract, it did not meet the 1989 Act and was void.
Held: The purchasers had not validly rescinded the contract. It was not possible to rescind a contract in only anticipation of a breach. Also the addition discount was expressly divorced from the contract at the purchasers’ own request, and the entire agreement successfully excluded it.
The parties had contracted for the sale and purchase of 11 flats in a development. The vendors issued completion notices, and the defendant failed to complete, and the claimants now sought specific performance.

Judges:

Behrens J

Citations:

[2009] EWHC B18 (Ch), [2009] EWHC 2174 (Ch), [2010] 1 P and CR DG3, [2009] NPC 106

Links:

Bailii, Bailii

Statutes:

Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 2(1)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Inntrepreneur Pub Co v East Crown Ltd 2000
The ‘entire agreement’ clause contained in a lease not only had the effect of rendering evidence of an alleged collateral warranty inadmissible, but also deprived the warranty of all legal effect. It did not collapse the lease in on itself. Lightman . .
Cited – Business Environment Bow Lane Ltd v Deanwater Estates Ltd CA 27-Jun-2007
Enforcement of repairing obligations in lease after assignments, and the use of collateral contracts. Sir Andrew Morritt C said: ‘The law relating to collateral contracts is well-established but in connection with sales or leases of land needs to be . .

Cited by:

Appeal from – North Eastern Properties Ltd v Coleman and Another CA 19-Mar-2010
The appellants challenged specific performance orders obliging them to complete the purchase of apartments, saying that the contracts had not complied with the 1989 Act, and that their repudiation of the contracts had been accepted. The contracts . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Contract

Updated: 05 October 2022; Ref: scu.375956

Byford v Butler; In re Byford deceased: ChD 10 Jun 2003

The house was owned in joint names. The husband became bankrupt, and the wife continued to pay the mortgage as to interest and capital. The trustee sought a declaration as to the ownership of the interests in the house. After the husband died, the trustee claimed an occupation rent.
Held: The wife’s interest should be calculated to allow for an occupation rent. The court should look to do justice according to the situation. The trustee had no opportuinty to occupy the property for the financial benefit of the creditors, and so fell within the class of joint owners excluded from the property. The absence of an ouster order was not conclusive against him.

Judges:

Mr Justice Lawrence Collins

Citations:

[2003] EWHC 1267 (Ch), Times 13-Jun-2003, Gazette 19-Jun-2003, Gazette 14-Aug-2003, [2004] 1 FLR 56, [2004] Fam Law 14, [2003] BPIR 1089, [2004] 2 FCR 454, [2004] 1 P and CR 12

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Re Gorman ChD 1990
The matrimonial home was in the joint names of husband and wife. After the marriage broke down, the husband left the home, and the wife discharged all mortgage payments (both capital and interest). The husband was adjudicated bankrupt. The wife . .
Cited – in Re Pavlou (A Bankrupt) ChD 17-Mar-1993
Mr and Mrs Pavlou bought a house for andpound;12,500 with a mortgage of andpound;9,500. After the husband left, the wife remained in sole occupation, and paid the mortgage instalments as they fell due. Thirteen years after the marriage Mrs Pavlou . .
Cited – Leigh v Dickeson 1884
The principles of equitable accounting apply equally to beneficial tenancies in common and beneficial joint tenancies. The guiding principle is that neither party can take the benefit of an increase in the value of the property without making an . .
Cited – Leake (formerly Bruzzi) v Bruzzi CA 1974
The house was purchased in the husband’s sole name with a declaration of trust in favour of the husband and wife, holding the property as joint tenants. The wife had left the matrimonial home, and the husband had paid all the mortgage instalments . .
Cited – Suttill v Graham CA 1977
The husband remained in the home after the divorce and paid all mortgage instalments.
Held: An occupation rent was payable.
Stamp LJ said: ‘a beneficiary entitled to an equal share in equity of property of which he is a trustee, and which . .
Cited – M’Mahon v Burchell CA 1846
Terence M’Mahon had left his house in St Christopher to his seven children as tenants in common. One of them (William) frequently occupied the house, three others occupied it occasionally, and three not at all. The executors of one of the children . .
Cited – Dennis v McDonald CA 1982
The plaintiff and defendant had lived together in a house held in their joint names. The woman left the home as a result of the man’s violence, and he kept up the mortgage payments.
Held: If in order to do equity between the parties an . .

Cited by:

Cited – Murphy v Gooch CA 27-Jun-2007
The unmarried parties had sought an order from the court as to their respective interests in their former family home.
Held:The judge had been incorrect to make his decsion based on the principles of equitable accounting. He should have used . .
Cited – Stonham v Ramrattan and Another CA 16-Feb-2011
The bankrupt, while solvent had acquired a property which was first put in his own sole name, but then transferred to his wife outwardly ‘in consideration of love and affection’. Several years later, on the bankruptcy, the trustee sought to have the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Insolvency

Updated: 05 October 2022; Ref: scu.183710

Owen v Waverley Court (Freehold) Ltd (Boundary Dispute): FTTPC 27 Aug 2019

Cancellation directed of two determined boundary applications where insufficient evidence was produced to support the exact line of the boundaries being the line on the application plans. The Respondents had put the Applicants to proof but did not put forward alternative exact boundary lines.

Citations:

[2019] UKFTT 585 (PC)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Land

Updated: 05 October 2022; Ref: scu.645426

Coventry (T/A RDC Promotions and Another v Lawrence and Others: CA 27 Feb 2012

The appellants, owners of a motor sport racing circuit, appealed against a finding that their activities constituted a nuisance, given that they had planning permissions for the use.
Held: The appeal succeeded. The judge had erred in holding that the actual use of the Stadium and the Track over a number of years, with planning permission, or a CLEUD, could not be taken into account when the assessing the character of the locality for the purpose of determining whether an activity is a nuisance.
Lewison LJ expressed a provisional obiter view that, contrary to the judge’s conclusion, it is possible to obtain by prescription a right to commit what would otherwise be a nuisance.

Judges:

Mummery, Jackson, Lewison LJJ

Citations:

[2012] EWCA Civ 26, [2012] Env LR 28, [2012] 1 WLR 2127, [2012] 3 All ER 168, [2012] WLR(D) 49, 141 Con LR 79, [2012] 1 EGLR 165, [2012] 10 EG 88, [2012] PTSR 1505

Links:

Bailii, WLRD

Statutes:

Town and Country Planning Act 1990 171B

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Lawrence and Another v Fen Tigers Ltd and Others QBD 4-Mar-2011
The claimants had complained that motor-cycle and other racing activities on neighbouring lands were a noise nuisance, but the court also considered that agents of the defendants had sought to intimidate the claimants into not pursuing their action. . .

Cited by:

Appeal from – Coventry and Others v Lawrence and Another SC 26-Feb-2014
C operated a motor racing circuit as tenant. The neighbour L objected that the noise emitted by the operations were a nuisance. C replied that the fact of his having planning consent meant that it was not a nuisance.
Held: The neighbour’s . .
Appeal from – Coventry and Others v Lawrence and Another (No 2) SC 23-Jul-2014
Consequential judgment. Mr Coventry had been found liable in the principle judgment in nuisance to the appellant neighbours. The Court was now asked as to several matters arising. First, to what extent were the defendants’ landlords liable to the . .
See Also – Coventry and Others v Lawrence and Another SC 22-Jul-2015
The appellants challenged the compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights of the system for recovery of costs in civil litigation in England and Wales following the passing of the Access to Justice Act 1999. The parties had been . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Nuisance, Planning, Land

Updated: 05 October 2022; Ref: scu.451500

Cameron v Boggiano and Another: CA 21 Feb 2012

The parties disputed the boundary between their neighbouring properties.

Judges:

Mummery, Rimer, McFarlane LJJ

Citations:

[2012] EWCA Civ 157

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Beale v Harvey CA 28-Nov-2003
Land had been divided into three lots on its development, but the site plan did not match the line of a fence actually erected.
Held: The court was not bound by the Watcham case, and would not follow it to allow reference to the later . .
Cited – Dixon and Another v Hodgson and Others CA 20-Dec-2011
The parties were in a boundary dispute. The court warned of the danger of deciding where a boundary is by simply relying on the physical appearance of the ground features to the neglect or exclusion of the title documents. The Recorder had found . .
Cited – Ali v Lane and Another CA 21-Nov-2006
The parties disputed the boundary between their neighbouring plots of land.
Held: In the modern law the conveyance (parchment or not) is undoubtedly the starting point. Where information contained in the conveyance is unclear or ambiguous, it . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land

Updated: 05 October 2022; Ref: scu.451445

Philllips v Low: ChD 3 Nov 1891

There had been a conveyance of land with a house on it whose window looked onto other land of the vendor.
Held: There was an implied ancillary right that the window would not be obscured by act of the vendor. There is applicable to devises of a testator’s property to different grantees the same salutary principle that governs the implication and acquisition of easements on the contemporaneous grants to different grantees of properties previously in the ownership of the grantor.

Judges:

Chitty J

Citations:

[1892] 1 Ch 47, [1891] UKLawRpCh 158

Links:

Commonlii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Palmer v Fletcher KBD 1793
‘. . the lights are a necessary and essential part of the house’ . .

Cited by:

Cited – Thompson v Bee and Another CA 20-Nov-2009
The parties disputed the extent and nature of the use allowed for an unregistered but express right of way. The track had been obtained by use for agriculture. The dominant owner appealed against a finding that it was limited to agricultural use, . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Wills and Probate

Updated: 04 October 2022; Ref: scu.381285

Fraser and Another v Canterbury Diocesan Board of Finance and Another: Chd 14 May 2003

The claimants sought to assert that land acquired under the 1841 Act reverted to them on its ceasing to be used for the purposes of a school. Lewison J summarised the evidence: ‘An analysis of the school registers for 1931 to 1947 shows that the children came from a variety of housing stock. Some came from what were, historically, middle-class streets of owner-occupied houses. Mr Harris lived in one such street, and his father, who worked for the local electricity board, owned his own house. An examination of the Maidstone rate-books for this period shows that some of the children lived in houses with high rateable values. I was shown photographs of some of these houses which were plainly comfortable and relatively spacious houses. However, further analysis by Mr Neil Fraser demonstrated that many of the higher rated houses appeared to have been in multiple occupation and others of them may well have been highly rated because the hereditament also included a shop. In the case of those children who lived in hereditaments including a shop, they may have been the children of ‘tradesmen’, who were specifically mentioned in the 1851 Act, but not in the conveyance.
Mr Harris said in his evidence that the former parish of St Philip contains a variety of housing including premises which belonged to the local authority and premises in and around Stone Street, Maidstone which would certainly have been occupied by the poorer classes. He, however, lived in a ‘better class area’, as did a friend of his, who also attended St Philip’s and was the son of a police inspector. He concluded that, having looked at the register, there were clearly a mixed variety of pupils being admitted to the school, some from very obviously poor backgrounds but some clearly from a more wealthy area.’ The defendants argued that the trustees of the school had used the land for purposes outside the terms of the original trusts, and that they acquired a title outside the Act, which title was the one acquired by them.
Held: ‘If land is conveyed to be held on trust for purpose A and for no other purpose, and the trustees use the land for purpose A and also for purpose B, it seems to me that they are using it for two purposes, one of which is permitted by the trust and the other of which is not. What they have not done is to cease to use the land for purpose A merely because they are also using it for purpose B.’

Judges:

The Honourable Mr Justice Lewison

Citations:

[2003] EWHC 1075 (Ch)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

School Sites Act 1841

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

See Also – Fraser and Another v Canterbury Diocesan Board Of Finance (No 1) CA 24-Nov-2000
A grant of land was made under the 1841 Act in 1872 (after the 1870 Act) and the school had in 1874 been transferred to a school board under section 23 of the 1870 Act. The school closed permanently in 1992. The issue was whether reverter had . .

Cited by:

Appeal from – Fraser and Fraser v Canterbury Diocesan Board of Finance Integrated Services Programme CA 28-Jan-2004
The claimants sought a reversion of land conveyed under the 1841 Act to trustees. The defendants (‘DBF’) as succesors to the trustees argued that by extending the range of pupils in the school, the trustees acquired a title independent of and . .
At first instance – 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, Trusts

Updated: 04 October 2022; Ref: scu.182149

Bank of Scotland Plc v Burnley Borough Council: UTLC 6 Dec 2019

Compensation – Compulsory Purchase – property acquired subject to a mortgage non-participation of mortgagor — property in disrepair – value less than outstanding mortgage debt – comparable transactions – draft consent order – compensation determined at pounds 28,000 – section 15, Compulsory Purchase Act 1965

Citations:

[2019] UKUT 370 (LC)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Land

Updated: 04 October 2022; Ref: scu.646013

Wickens v Cheval Property Developments Ltd: ChD 8 Sep 2010

The buyer of land sought a reduction in the purchase price complaining of the removal of several items (worth possibly andpound;300,000) by intruders after exchange. The seller said that the fixtures had been excluded under the contract.
Held: There had been no fraud. The sellers did not know of the removal of the items.

Judges:

Purle QC J

Citations:

[2010] EWHC 2249 (Ch)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Brownlie v Campbell; Brownlie v Miller HL 1880
Silence where there is a duty to speak, may amount to a misrepresentation. Lord Blackburn said: ‘where there is a duty or an obligation to speak, and a man in breach of that duty or obligation holds his tongue and does not speak, and does not say . .
Cited – With v O’Flanagan CA 1936
When negotiating to enter into a contract, a person may have a duty to disclose material facts which come to his notice before the conclusion of a contract if they falsify a representation previously made by him. A representation as to the profits . .
Cited – Taylor v Hamer CA 2002
The parties were buyers and sellers of land. The seller’s husband removed a large area of flagstones after the buyer’s first inspection but before exchange. He seeded over the land so that, on a second inspection by the buyer’s solicitor, the . .
Cited – Investors Compensation Scheme Ltd v West Bromwich Building Society HL 19-Jun-1997
Account taken of circumstances wihout ambiguity
The respondent gave advice on home income plans. The individual claimants had assigned their initial claims to the scheme, but later sought also to have their mortgages in favour of the respondent set aside.
Held: Investors having once . .
Cited – Peekay Intermark Ltd and Another v Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd ComC 25-May-2005
The claimant alleged mis-selling of an emerging markets investment product. The defendant claimed that whilst there might have been a misrepresentation, by the time the contract was formed, correct information had been provided and incorporated in . .
Cited – Chartbrook Ltd v Persimmon Homes Ltd and Others HL 1-Jul-2009
Mutual Knowledge admissible to construe contract
The parties had entered into a development contract in respect of a site in Wandsworth, under which balancing compensation was to be paid. They disagreed as to its calculation. Persimmon sought rectification to reflect the negotiations.
Held: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Contract

Updated: 04 October 2022; Ref: scu.423152

Palmer v Fletcher: KBD 1793

‘. . the lights are a necessary and essential part of the house’

Judges:

Twysden and Wyndham JJ

Citations:

[1793] EngR 798, (1793) 1 Lev 122, (1793) 83 ER 329 (A)

Links:

Commonlii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Philllips v Low ChD 3-Nov-1891
There had been a conveyance of land with a house on it whose window looked onto other land of the vendor.
Held: There was an implied ancillary right that the window would not be obscured by act of the vendor. There is applicable to devises of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land

Updated: 04 October 2022; Ref: scu.357385

Cik v Bhanjibhai and others: LT 7 Aug 2008

LT LEASEHOLD ENFRANCHISEMENT – lease extensions – price – deferment rate – LVT adopting 6.5% because of location outside PCL and other factors – whether factors justified departure from Sportelli – held they did not – appeal allowed.

Citations:

[2008] EWLands LRA – 111 – 2007

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Land

Updated: 04 October 2022; Ref: scu.278613

Wilkins and Another v Lewis: ChD 29 Jul 2005

Citations:

[2005] EWHC 1710 (Ch)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Harris v Flower CA 1904
The servient land-owner alleged an excessive user by which it was attempted to impose an additional burden on the servient tenement in the use of a right of way for obtaining access to a factory erected partly on the land to which the right of way . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land

Updated: 04 October 2022; Ref: scu.229274

Payne v Maldon District Council: UTLC 5 Nov 2019

Restrictive Covenants – Discharge – 1.83 ha with outline planning permission for residential development – 1984 planning agreement under Town and Country Planning Act 1971 preventing erection of buildings – Tribunal’s jurisdiction to discharge or modify – modification ordered limited to planning permission – section 84(1)(aa) Law of Property Act 1925

Citations:

[2019] UKUT 335 (LC)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Land

Updated: 04 October 2022; Ref: scu.646009

Berkeley Square Investments Ltd v Berkeley Square Holdings Ltd: UTLC 9 Dec 2019

Restrictive Covenants – Modification – Leasehold Grade I Listed building in Berkeley Square – user clause restricted to offices – application to modify to allow use as a private members’ club – whether restriction obsolete – whether practical benefit of substantial value or advantage secured – whether injury would be caused by modification – section 84(1)(a), (aa) and (c), Law of Property Act 1925 – modification of user covenant ordered.

Citations:

[2019] UKUT 384 (LC)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Land

Updated: 04 October 2022; Ref: scu.646014

Abigail v Lapin: PC 19 Jun 1934

(Australia) Mr and Mrs Lapin, the registered proprietors of land, had given transfers by way of security to creditors who fraudulently mortgaged it. The majority in the High Court had held that the unregistered security of the subsequent lender did not take priority over the Lapins’ equitable right to redeem. Knox CJ and Dixon J, in the majority, and Gavan Duffy and Starke JJ, in the minority, agreed that prima facie the equitable interest of the prior equity holder took priority of the later. That position could be disturbed by disentitling conduct on the part of the holder of the prior equity which warranted its postponement to the subsequently acquired equity.
Held: The appeal succeeded. The Lapins’ conduct in arming their creditors with the capacity to become the registered proprietors was disentitling conduct. The Board rejected Kindersley V-C’s position that priority in time was the test only where the equities were otherwise equal. It was clearly established that prima facie priority in time would decide the matter unless there was something ‘tangible and distinct having grave and strong effect’ to warrant taking away the pre-existing equitable title.
‘For the general protection of equitable interest or estates, the act provides that a caveat may be lodged with the registrar by any person claiming as cestui que trust, or under any unregistered instrument or any other estate or interest; the effect of the caveat is that no instrument will be registered while the caveat is in force affecting the land, estate or interest until after a certain notice to the person lodging the caveat. Thus, though the legal interest is in general determined by the registered transfer, mortgages or other changes, the register may bear on its face and notice of the equitable claims, so as to warn persons dealing in respect of the land and to enable the equitable claimant to protect his claim by enabling him to bring an action if his claim is disputed.’

Citations:

[1934] UKPC 33, [1934] AC 491, 151 LT 429, [1934] All ER 720

Links:

Bailii

Cited by:

Cited – Cook v The Mortgage Business Plc CA 24-Jan-2012
The land owners sought relief from possession orders made under mortgages given in equity release schemes: ‘If the purchaser raises all or part of the purchase price on mortgage, and then defaults, the issue arises whether the mortgagee’s right to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Commonwealth, Land

Updated: 04 October 2022; Ref: scu.450476

Taylor v Lambert and Another: CA 18 Jan 2012

The court heard an appeal against a judgment in a boundary dispute, the losing party having latterly dicovered aerial photopgraphs. There appeared to be a difference between the total area as specified in a 1974 conveyance off of part and the area naturally forming the boundary.

Judges:

Maurice Kay VP, Lloyd, Sullivan LJJ

Citations:

[2012] EWCA Civ 3

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Eastwood v Ashton HL 1915
Toi Identify Land, Court to Find True Meaning
A contract described the property and referred to a plan attached. The conveyance used four indications: the farm sold was said to be called by a given name, to contain 84 acres odd ‘or thereabouts’, and to be in the occupation of two different . .
Cited – Horn and Another v Phillips and Another CA 18-Dec-2003
In a boundary dispute, extrinsic evidence was not admissible to contradict, in this, case the transfer with an annexed plan, which clearly showed the boundary as a straight line and even contained a precise measurement of distance. . .
Cited – Pennock and Another v Hodgson CA 27-Jul-2010
In a boundary dispute, the judge had found a boundary, locating it by reference to physical features not mentioned in the unambigous conveyance.
Held: The judge had reiterated but not relied upon the statement as to the subjective views of the . .
Cited – Beale v Harvey CA 28-Nov-2003
Land had been divided into three lots on its development, but the site plan did not match the line of a fence actually erected.
Held: The court was not bound by the Watcham case, and would not follow it to allow reference to the later . .
Cited – Partridge and others v Lawrence and others CA 8-Jul-2003
The appellants challenged a finding as to the width of a right of way over their land as exercised by the respondents.
Held: The appeal was allowed in part. Peter Gibson LJ said: ‘The claimants now have the security that this court is . .
Cited – Wigginton and Milner Ltd v Winster Engineering Ltd CA 7-Dec-1977
Various conveyances had dealt with land. By mistake, certain land was excluded from the plans.
Held: The plan had been included ‘for identification purposes only’, but that did not mean that the plan was to be disregarded. It could not . .
Cited – Rogers and Another v Freeguard and Another CA 19-Oct-1998
The parties had drawn up and executed an option agreement. When a court considered an option to purchase ‘land known as . .’, it was able to consider extrinsic evidence to establish just what was included where the identification in the deed was . .
Cited – Alan Wibberley Building Ltd v Insley HL 24-Mar-1999
The parties disputed ownership of a strip of land between a garden and a farm. The land was registered. There was a hedge and a ditch along the disputed boundary, it had been conceded in the Court of Appeal that a conveyance of land on the hedge . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land

Updated: 04 October 2022; Ref: scu.450326

Gillespie v Gillespie and Others: SCS 30 Nov 2011

Outer House, Court of Session – supplementary opinion

Judges:

Lord Hodge

Citations:

[2011] ScotCS CSOH – 201

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

Scotland

Cited by:

See Also – Gillespie v Gillespie and Others (No 1) SCS 18-Nov-2011
. .
See Also – Gillespie v Gillespie and Others (No 2) SCS 18-Nov-2011
. .
See Also – Gillespie v Gillespie and Others (No 3) SCS 18-Nov-2011
. .
See Also – Gillespie v Gillespie and Others (No 4) SCS 18-Nov-2011
. .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Scotland, Company, Land

Updated: 04 October 2022; Ref: scu.450123

Banks v Morgan and Others: CA 15 Dec 2011

The parties, neighbours, disputed the existence of a right of way. The court had found that the right had not been abandoned. There were still substantial disputes between the parties as to several aspects of the result, disputing also which plan had been adopted.
Held: The court gave further directions on the need for a further hearing.

Judges:

Lord Neuberger MR, Black LJ, Mann J

Citations:

[2011] EWCA Civ 1568

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Land

Updated: 01 October 2022; Ref: scu.450049

HSBC Bank Plc v Dyche and Another: ChD 18 Nov 2009

The parties disputed the claimed beneficial interest of the second defendant. The second defendant (C) said that it had been purchased for him by the first defendant (D) from C’s trustee in bankruptcy, and was thereafter held in trust for him on the basis that C would repay D.
Held: The property was held on constructive trust for C. The subsequent mortgage granted by D to the claimant was overridden.

Judges:

Purle J

Citations:

[2009] EWHC 2954 (Ch), [2010] 2 P and CR 4, [2010] BPIR 138

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – In re Duke of Marlborough, Davis v Whitehead 1894
The Duchess assigned her own separate leasehold property to the Duke absolutely in consideration of her natural love and affection for him. This enabled him to raise money on mortgage. The wife’s evidence was that, subject to the mortgage being . .
Cited – Stack v Dowden HL 25-Apr-2007
The parties had cohabited for a long time, in a home bought by Ms Dowden. After the breakdown of the relationship, Mr Stack claimed an equal interest in the second family home, which they had bought in joint names. The House was asked whether, when . .
Cited – Ingram and Another v Commissioners of Inland Revenue HL 10-Dec-1998
To protect her estate from Inheritance Tax, the deceased gave land to her solicitor, but then took back a lease. The solicitor then conveyed the land on freehold on to members of her family.
Held: The lease-back by the nominee was not void as . .
Cited – In re Sir Thomas Spencer Wells; Swinburne-Hanham v Howard CA 1933
In the case of a dissolved corporation, its assets vest in the Crown bona vacantia. The equity of redemption is an interest or equitable right inherent in the land. Equity recognises the pre-eminence of the right to redeem, with the consequence that . .
Cited – Ingram and Palmer-Tomkinson (Executors of the Estate of Lady Jane Lindsay Morgan Ingram Deceased) v Commissioners of Inland Revenue CA 28-Jul-1997
The deceased had first conveyed property to her solicitor. Leases back were then created in her favour, and then the freeholds were conveyed at her direction to her children and grandchildren. They were potentially exempt transfers.
Held: . .
Cited – Abbey National Building Society v Cann HL 29-Mar-1990
Registered land was bought with an advance from the plaintiff. The transfer and charge were registered one month later, but in the meantime, the buyer’s parents moved in. When the buyer defaulted, his mother resisted possession proceedings, saying . .
Cited – City of London Building Society v Flegg And Another HL 14-May-1987
A couple bought a property and registered it in their own names with substantial financial assistance from the parents of one of them. The parents occupied the house with them. Without telling the parents, the owners borrowed again, executing . .
Cited – Lyus v Prowsa Developments Ltd ChD 1982
The plaintiffs contracted to buy a plot of registered land with a house to be built on it. The developer had charged the estate as a whole to a bank to secure the development finance. The developer became insolvent and the bank sold the estate as . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Trusts, Land

Updated: 01 October 2022; Ref: scu.380333

University of East London Higher Education Corporation v London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and others: ChD 14 Dec 2004

The parties had litigated the sale of land free of restrictive covenants.
Held: The rule that a party was entilted to its costs of defending an action under the Act for the discharge of a covenant at least as far as was necessary for it to have been able to establish whether it was proper to resist the application had survived the introduction of the Civil Procedure Rules (44.3(2)(b)). The circumstances justifying the rule were still applicable. It was reasonable also for the defendants to have had separate representation, and each was entitled to the appropriate costs. There had been a potential conflict of interest.

Judges:

Lightman J

Citations:

[2004] EWHC 2908 (Ch), Times 03-Jan-2005, [2005] 2 WLR 1334, [2005] 3 All ER 416, [2005] 2 Costs LR 287

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Law of Property Act 1925 84(20, Civil Procedure Rules 44.3(2)(b)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

See Also – University of East London Higher Education Corporation v London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and others ChD 9-Dec-2004
The University wanted to sell land for development free of restrictive covenants. It had previously been in the ownership of both the servient and dominant land in respect of a restrictive covenant. The Borough contended that the restrictive . .
Cited – Re Jeffkins Indentures 1965
‘a plaintiff seeking a declaration that restrictive covenants do not affect his property is expected to pay his own costs. He is also expected to pay the costs of any defendants who enter an appearance down to the point in proceedings at which they . .
Cited – Re Wembley Park Estate Co Ltd’s Transfer 1968
The court confirmed the rule in Jeffkins and added that ‘the costs payable to the defendant should be paid on the common fund basis ‘since the obtaining of the order is something in the nature of a luxury to the plaintiff for which he ought to pay.’ . .
Not Followed – J Sainsbury plc v Enfield London Borough Council 1989
Land had been conveyed in 1894, the purchaser covenanting with the vendor (alone). The fact that the vendor retained other land was apparent from other parts of the conveyance, but the covenant was not expressed to be for the benefit of that land. . .
Cited – AEI Rediffusion Music Ltd v Phonographic Performance Ltd CA 1-Feb-1999
The copyright tribunal was given a wide discretion for the awarding of costs on applications made to it for licenses. The nature of the applications and the different basis makes it dangerous to import rules for awards from the general rules on . .

Cited by:

See Also – University of East London Higher Education Corporation v London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and others ChD 9-Dec-2004
The University wanted to sell land for development free of restrictive covenants. It had previously been in the ownership of both the servient and dominant land in respect of a restrictive covenant. The Borough contended that the restrictive . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Costs, Civil Procedure Rules

Updated: 01 October 2022; Ref: scu.220291

Flack v Lanzante: CA 28 Aug 2002

Renewed application for leave to appeal. Boundary dispute. Boundary agreement shown – leave refused.

Citations:

[2002] EWCA Civ 1287

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Neilson v Poole ChD 1969
Significance of Boundary agreements
The parties, neighbours, disputed the boundary between their gardens. In a conveyance of land where the plan is stated to be for identification purposes only, the effect of those words: ‘Seems . . to confine the use of the plan to ascertaining where . .
Distinguished – Penfold and Penfold v Cooke 1978
(New Zealand) There can be no boundary agreement unless it constitutes a genuine attempt to resolve a disputed boundary line. A boundary agreement gave one party as much as three quarters of an acre of land. The court thought that the judge was not . .
Mentioned – Burns and Burns v Morton CA 27-May-1999
The parties disputed the line of the boundary between their neighbouring properties.
Held: The appeal failed: ‘the conveyance in respect of each property refers to the wall between the properties as being a division or dividing wall. That . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land

Updated: 01 October 2022; Ref: scu.217525

London Borough of Lambeth v Blackburn: CA 10 Apr 2001

Renewed application for leave to appeal – granted.

Citations:

[2001] EWCA Civ 668

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Full Appeal – London Borough of Lambeth v Blackburn CA 14-Jun-2001
The appellant had broken into an empty council owned flat, and subsequently occupied it. After twelve years the authority obtained a court order for possession. The court had held that the appellant had not had a sufficient animus possidendi since . .

Cited by:

Grant of Leave – London Borough of Lambeth v Blackburn CA 14-Jun-2001
The appellant had broken into an empty council owned flat, and subsequently occupied it. After twelve years the authority obtained a court order for possession. The court had held that the appellant had not had a sufficient animus possidendi since . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Limitation

Updated: 01 October 2022; Ref: scu.218116

Abbey National plc v Moss and Others: CA 1994

Mrs Moss inherited the former matrimonial home. Her daughter (L) suggested that she transfer it into their joint names to ease its transfer on her mother’s death. It was agreed the house would never be sold during Mrs Moss’s lifetime. L borrowed andpound;30,000 using the house as security and forged her mother’s signature on the charge. Mrs Moss did not know of the mortgage. They fell out and L left and ceased to make payments. The chargee sought to recover the arrears, possession of the property and also made an application for an order for sale under s. 30. The judge ordered sale.
Held: (by Majority) The position created by the transfer into joint names subject to the agreement that the property was not to be sold in the mother’s lifetime was that the trust for sale thereby created could not be implemented without the mother’s consent. The assignee of a donee could not acquire a better right than the donee had, but took his interest subject to all the equities effecting the interest of the donee. In proceedings apart from s 30, the court would not allow the trustees for sale to ignore the requirement of consent, and although in proceedings under s. 30 the court had a wide discretion to override the refusal of trustees for sale to sell on the application of any person interested, the trust for sale would not be enforced so long as there was a collateral purpose still subsisting requiring the retention of the property. The judge had been wrong to hold that the collateral purpose of the agreement had come to an end by reason of the daughter losing her beneficial interest through the mortgage, and his an error of law required the Court of Appeal to exercise its discretion under s. 30 afresh. It did so and refused an order for sale. ‘Again apart from s. 30, I apprehend that an assignee of the donee would be held not to be in any better position than the donee to ignore the requirements of Mrs Moss’s concern to a sale.’ Hirst LJ (dissenting) would have upheld the judge’s decision only being unwilling to interfere with an exercise of a judge’s discretion under s30. S30 gives the court a discretionary power to order sale, even where the respondent to an application’s interest in the property ranks before that of the applicant. The house was registered land and Mrs Moss was in occupation and that therefore s. 70(1)(g) would have applied. Nevertheless neither counsel for Mrs Moss nor the judge nor any member of this court suggested that the building society’s s. 30 application was defeated by the operation of that sub-section

Judges:

Peter Gibson LJ, Hirst LJ

Citations:

[1994] 1 FLR 307

Statutes:

Law of Property Act 1925 30, Land Registration Act 1925 70(1)(g)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Followed – Barclays Bank Plc v Hendricks and Another ChD 3-Nov-1995
The wife was co-owner of the family home. Her husband owed money to the bank. He separated from his wife and left the matrimonial home moving to another house owned by the wife. The bank obtained a charging order absolute against the husband’s . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Trusts

Updated: 01 October 2022; Ref: scu.197885

Kastner v Jason, Sherman, Sherman and Sherman, Sherman and Kastner: ChD 23 Mar 2004

The parties had a dispute arbitrated by the Beth Din, who ordered the sale of a property. In apparent breach of that order the owner purported to sell the property. The claimant had registered a caution which the defendants now sought to be vacated.
Held: Provisional awards by arbitrators were not directly enforceable unless the parties agreed otherwise, and such an agreement was found here. However, the parties had not agreed that the award should create any proprietary interest in or charge against the property.

Judges:

The Hon Mr Justice Lightman

Citations:

[2004] EWHC 592 Ch, Times 26-Apr-2004

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Arbitration Act 1996 39(1) 48

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Elias v Mitchell 1972
A caution against dealings can only be registered to protect some form of interest in land . .
Cited – Edwards, Drummond Smith v Flightline Limited CA 5-Feb-2003
The applicant company obtained an injunction against another company. That freezing injunction was discharged upon the payment of a sum into the names of the respective parties’ solicitors. The company went into liquidation, and the claimant . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Arbitration, Land

Updated: 01 October 2022; Ref: scu.194842

X v A, B, C: ChD 29 Mar 2000

Trustees sought guidance from the court as to investment in land which might become a liability because of clean up costs associated with the Act when it came into force. Would the trustees have a lien over other property of the deceased to pay the costs?
Held: A trustee has a lien over the trust fund for his proper costs and expenses extending to an indemnity against all future liabilities of the trustee as such. The wide powers of investment did not displace the duty to act with prudence and fairly as between the beneficiaries. Whilst the trustees may not be obliged to act under the direction of the beneficiaries it remained proper to require the trustees to consult with them on such decisions.

Citations:

[2000] EWHC Ch 121

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Environmental Protection Act 1990

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Rylands v Fletcher HL 1868
The defendant had constructed a reservoir to supply water to his mill. Water escaped into nearby disused mineshafts, and in turn flooded the plaintiff’s mine. The defendant appealed a finding that he was liable in damages.
Held: The defendant . .
Cited – Re Pauling’s Settlement Trusts (No 2) 1-Jun-1963
An application was made for the trustee to be replaced. The trustee complained that he would remain liable in certain events, and sought an indemnity from any new trustee out of the trust fund.
Held: A new trustees would be under ‘the normal . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Nuisance, Environment, Trusts

Updated: 01 October 2022; Ref: scu.162992

Regina (on the Application of the Personal Representatives of Christopher Beeson) v Dorset County Council and Another: QBD 30 Nov 2001

The Council had provided financial assistance for the care of the claimant’s father before his death in a residential home. Those costs were in part recoverable as a civil debt. His father had given him the house by deed of gift. The regulations provided that the father was to be treated as still possessing property of which he had denuded himself to avoid payment of the charges The local authority sought an equitable charge over the property. The council had misapplied the subjective test, of whether the father had actually known sufficient of the scheme, and the need to test the actual purpose of the gift in the father’s mind. The son said the procedure lacked independence because of the potential conflict of interest and lack of independence of those making the decisions. The statutory scheme is a measure of welfare assistance, but not every part need be, and may not be covered by the Convention. The availability of judicial review was inadequate to correct that defect. There was a breach of the claimant’s article 6 rights, but not under article 14.

Judges:

Mr Justice Richards

Citations:

Times 21-Dec-2001, [2001] EWHC Admin 986

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

National Assistance Act 1948 21, National Assistance (Assessment of Resources) Regulations 1992 (1992 No 2977)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Applied – Yule v South Lanarkshire Council for Judicial Review of A Decision of South Lanarkshire Council SCS 15-Aug-2000
. .
Cited – Regina on the Application of Kathro and Others and Llantwit Fardre Community Council v Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council Admn 6-Jul-2001
Local residents sought to challenge the proposed determination of a planning application which involved a private finance initiative. One of the grounds was that the use of a negotiated tendering procedure for the purposes of the PFI was contrary to . .
Appealed to – The Secretary of State for Health, Dorset County Council v The Personal Representative of Christopher Beeson CA 18-Dec-2002
The deceased had been adjudged by his local authority to have deprived himself of his house under the Regulations. Complaint was made that the procedure did not allow an appeal and therefore deprived him of his rights under article 6.
Held: . .

Cited by:

Appeal from – The Secretary of State for Health, Dorset County Council v The Personal Representative of Christopher Beeson CA 18-Dec-2002
The deceased had been adjudged by his local authority to have deprived himself of his house under the Regulations. Complaint was made that the procedure did not allow an appeal and therefore deprived him of his rights under article 6.
Held: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Benefits

Updated: 01 October 2022; Ref: scu.166918

H L Estates Limited, Wynford Newman Dore v Parker-Lake Homes Limited: ChD 20 Mar 2003

Judges:

Her Honour Judge Frances Kirkham

Citations:

[2003] EWHC 604 (Ch)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Williams v Moss Empires Ltd ChD 1915
The court considered what was necessary to achieve a variation of a contract. Shearman J: ‘The principle . . is that where there is alleged to have been a variation of a written contract by a new parol contract, which incorporates some of the terms . .
Cited – McCausland and Another v Duncan Lawrie Ltd and Another CA 18-Jun-1996
The parties entered into a written contract for the sale of land which, in error, provided for completion on a Sunday. The parties varied the date to the Friday but did not execute a new contract which would comply with section 2(1) of the 1989 Act. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Land

Updated: 01 October 2022; Ref: scu.180333

Bankers Trust Company v Namdar and Namdar: CA 14 Feb 1997

The bank sought repayment of its loan and possession of the defendants’ property. The second defendant said that the charge had only her forged signature.
Held: Non-compliance with section 2 of the 1989 Act does not make a bargain illegal, and therefore does not remove the possibility of an argument based upon estoppel.

Judges:

Peter Gibson LJ

Citations:

[1997] EWCA Civ 1015

Statutes:

Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 82

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Godden v Merthyr Tydfil Housing Association CA 15-Jan-1997
The Plaintiff was a building contractor; the Defendant a housing association engaged in developing suitable sites for residential accommodation for letting to tenants. Before the contract the parties had successfully completed what was been called . .
Cited – McCausland and Another v Duncan Lawrie Ltd and Another CA 18-Jun-1996
The parties entered into a written contract for the sale of land which, in error, provided for completion on a Sunday. The parties varied the date to the Friday but did not execute a new contract which would comply with section 2(1) of the 1989 Act. . .
Cited – Thomas v Dering 1837
The court put forward: ‘the general principle that the court will not execute a contract, the performance of which is unreasonable or will be prejudicial to persons interested in the property, but not parties to the contract’ . .
Cited – Williams and Glyn’s Bank Ltd v Boland HL 19-Jun-1980
Wife in Occupation had Overriding Interest
The wife had made a substantial financial contribution to the purchase price of the house which was registered only in her husband’s name, and charged to the bank. The bank sought possession. The wife resisted saying that she had an overriding . .
Cited – Firstpost Homes Ltd v Johnson and Others CA 14-Aug-1995
The parties disputed whether a contract had been made. The proposed contract was contained in a letter and a plan but only the plan was signed by both parties.
Held: The requirements of Section 2 had not been satisfied because it was the . .
Cited – Orakpo v Manson Investments Ltd HL 1977
Transactions were entered into under which loans were made to enable the borrower to acquire and develop certain properties were held to be unenforceable under the 1927 Act. The effect was to enrich the borrower, who had fallen into arrears of . .
Cited – Bowers v Bowers 3-Feb-1987
Husband and wife were the joint owners of a house subject to a mortgage. The husband purported to remortgage the house, the wife’s signature being forged.
Held: Although the remortgage only took effect as a charge on the husband’s equitable . .
Cited – Lipkin Gorman (a Firm) v Karpnale Ltd HL 6-Jun-1991
The plaintiff firm of solicitors sought to recover money which had been stolen from them by a partner, and then gambled away with the defendant. He had purchased their gaming chips, and the plaintiff argued that these, being gambling debts, were . .
Cited – Boscawen and Others v Bajwa and Others; Abbey National Plc v Boscawen and Others CA 10-Apr-1995
The defendant had charged his property to the Halifax. Abbey supplied funds to secure its discharge, but its own charge was not registered. It sought to take advantage of the Halifax’s charge which had still not been removed.
Held: A mortgagee . .

Cited by:

Cited – Yaxley v Gotts and Another CA 24-Jun-1999
Oral Agreement Creating Proprietory Estoppel
The defendant offered to give to the Plaintiff, a builder, the ground floor of a property in return for converting the house, and then managing it. They were friends, and the oral offer was accepted. The property was then actually bought in the name . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Contract

Updated: 01 October 2022; Ref: scu.141411

Cohen v Teseo Properties Ltd and Another: ChD 18 Jul 2014

The claimant sought a declaration that a contract for the sale of property in London to the First Defendant has terminated, leaving the Claimant free to deal with the property as he chose. Teseo counterclaimed for specific performance of the Contract and the sale of the property to itself. If it failed in its claim for specific performance, Teseo claims to be relieved under section 49(2) of the Law of Property Act 1925 against forfeiture of the deposit it has paid.

Judges:

Sales J

Citations:

[2014] EWHC 2442 (Ch)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Law of Property Act 1925 49(2)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Land, Contract

Updated: 29 September 2022; Ref: scu.534641

Hoyle and Another, Re Land At Woodlands: UTLC 21 Nov 2011

UTLC RESTRICTIVE COVENANT – modification – covenant in 1870 Deed Poll restricting estate development to two dwellings per plot – proposal to erect additional house on part of two of the original plots – whether proposed use of land reasonable – whether practical benefits of substantial value or advantage secured by the restriction – whether modification would cause injury – application allowed – Law of Property Act 1925, section 84(1)(aa) and (c)

Judges:

PR Francis

Citations:

[2011] UKUT 439 (LC)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Law of Property Act 1925 84(1)(aa)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Land

Updated: 29 September 2022; Ref: scu.449725

Samarenko v Dawn Hill House Ltd: CA 1 Dec 2011

The court was asked ‘i) Is a failure to pay a deposit on time under a contract for the sale of land necessarily a repudiatory breach of contract entitling the seller to terminate the contract;
ii) If the answer is no, was time successfully made of the essence of payment in this case with the consequence that, on the facts, the seller was entitled to terminate the contract?’

Judges:

Rix, Etheron, Lewison LJJ

Citations:

[2011] EWCA civ 1445

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Contract, Land

Updated: 29 September 2022; Ref: scu.449384

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 land would revert to the claimants as beneficiaries of the original grantors. The respondent ‘DBF’ argued that the claim had been lost by limitation because the land hac been used for other purposes (the education of children from outside the district and middle-class children) before the 1987 Act came into force, and that they became successors to the school trustees for uses beyond the deed, which brought the reverter.
Held: The reverters’ appeal succeeded and their claim restored. The trustees acquired the school for the purposes of the 1841 Act, not only under the explicit declaration in the deed. There might be a claim for breach of the caritable trusts but no further. There was moreover insufficient evidence to allow an inference of breach of trust. The CA had been wrong to interpret the judge’s findings of fact in the way they had.

Judges:

Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, Lord Hoffmann, Lord Hope of Craighead, Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe, Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood

Citations:

[2005] 3 WLR 964, Times 31-Oct-2005, [2005] UKHL 65, [2006] 1 All ER 315

Links:

Bailii, House of Lords

Statutes:

School Sites Act 1841, Reverter of Sites Act 1987 1

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Attorney General v Shadwell 1910
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 . .
Cited – In re Ingleton Charity 1956
The effect of section 2 of the 1841 Act is that if a reverter occurred but the trustees of the school remain in possession for 12 years, the title by reverter will usually become statute-barred. . .
Appeal from – Fraser and Fraser v Canterbury Diocesan Board of Finance Integrated Services Programme CA 28-Jan-2004
The claimants sought a reversion of land conveyed under the 1841 Act to trustees. The defendants (‘DBF’) as succesors to the trustees argued that by extending the range of pupils in the school, the trustees acquired a title independent of and . .
At first instance – Fraser and Another v Canterbury Diocesan Board of Finance and Another Chd 14-May-2003
The claimants sought to assert that land acquired under the 1841 Act reverted to them on its ceasing to be used for the purposes of a school. Lewison J summarised the evidence: ‘An analysis of the school registers for 1931 to 1947 shows that the . .
Cited – 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 – National Society v School Board of London 1874
The National Society raised large sums by subscription and made grants in favour of schools in which children were to be instructed (in addition to reading, writing and arithmetic) in holy scripture and in the liturgy and catechism of the . .
Cited – Clavering v Ellison 1859
Any provision determining or divesting an estate held on trust ‘must be such that the Court can see from the beginning, precisely and distinctly, upon the happening of what event it was that the preceding vested estate was to determine’ . .
Cited – In Re Cawston’s Conveyance and the School Sites Act 1841 CA 1940
The 1841 Act was intended to encourage land owners to make land available for educational purposes: ‘One can see that the provision with regard to reverter would have been and no doubt was considered by the Legislature to be a very useful . .
Cited – In re Lysaght (deceased) 1966
A general charitable purpose (or intention) should be recognised and given effect to, even though some particular directions given by the charity’s founder are (or become) impracticable. . .
Cited – Clayton v Ramsden HL 1943
A condition in the will was that the legatee, his daughter, should not marry a person ‘not of Jewish parentage and of the Jewish faith.’
Held: The condition was void for uncertainty. Lord Russell of Killowen said: ‘The courts have always . .
Cited – Fraser and Another v Canterbury Diocesan Board Of Finance (No 1) CA 24-Nov-2000
A grant of land was made under the 1841 Act in 1872 (after the 1870 Act) and the school had in 1874 been transferred to a school board under section 23 of the 1870 Act. The school closed permanently in 1992. The issue was whether reverter had . .
Cited – Fraser and Another v Canterbury Diocesan Board of Finance ChD 22-Feb-2000
Where land had been acquired under the Act on trusts related specifically to the provision of education in accordance with a specified religion, the abandonment by the school of that purpose meant that the land reverted immediately to the original . .

Cited by:

Cited – St Mary and St Michael Parish Advisory Company Ltd v The Westminster Roman Catholic Diocese Trustee, Her Majesty’s Attorney Genera and others ChD 6-Apr-2006
Parish members objected to the building within the church grounds of an education centre. They said that the land was to be used for the purposes of the members of the parish only under a trust deed of 1851.
Held: The deed had to be construed . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Limitation, Trusts

Updated: 29 September 2022; Ref: scu.231606

Beaulane Properties Ltd v Palmer: ChD 23 Mar 2005

The paper owner sought possession of land. The defendant said he had acquired a possessory title. The land was registered.
Held: The claimant’s human rights under article 1 were engaged. To be justifiable, the interference in that right had to be ‘in the public interest’. The limitation rules were enacted by the State for public purposes, to achieve certainty and to prevent the court having to adjudicate on stale claims. In land claims the rules had wider purposes than to regulate as between owner and trespasser. The effect on land claims was to deprive the land owner of his land. The state had a wide margin. When the Land Registration system was enacted the main considerations included matters such as adjustment of boundaries. However ‘the expropriation of registered land withouty compensation in the circumstances of this case did not advance any of the legitimate aims of the statutory provisions and was disproportionate’ The claimant’s loss of his land under section 75 of the 1925 Act was disproportionate.

Judges:

Nicholas Strauss QC

Citations:

Times 13-Apr-2005, (2005) 14 EGCS 129, [2005] EWHC 817 (Ch), [2006] Ch 79

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

European Convention on Human Rights 81, Land Registration Act 1925 75

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Tower Hamlets v Barrett and Another CA 19-Jul-2005
The defendant tenants appealed an order for them to surrender possession of land which they claimed had been acquired by adverse possession. The buildings, including one which shared a party wall with the building owned by the defendants had been . .
Cited – J A Pye (Oxford) Ltd v The United Kingdom ECHR 15-Nov-2005
The claimants had been the registered proprietors of land, they lost it through the adverse possession of former tenants holding over. They claimed that the law had dispossessed them of their lawful rights.
Held: The cumulative effect of the . .
No longer correct – Ofulue and Another v Bossert CA 29-Jan-2008
The claimants appealed an order finding that the defendant had acquired their land by adverse possession. They said that the defendant had asserted in defence to possession proceedings that they were tenants, and that this contradicted an intent to . .
Cited – Lancashire County Council v Buchanan Admn 7-Nov-2007
The defendant estate agent was prosecuted for misdescribing the ability of his client to convey good title to the land offered. The seller did not initially have a registered possessory title to part of the land.
Held: The agent’s appeal . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Human Rights, Land, Limitation, Registered Land, Limitation

Updated: 29 September 2022; Ref: scu.224111