In re White’s Charities; Charity Commissioners v Mayor of London: 1898

There is no distinction in law between a highway in the country and a street in a town. Where the grantor of a right of way owns the entire width of the land, the presumption applies to the entire width and not only ad medium filum.
Romer J said: ‘It is undesirable, in terms of public interest, to have odd pieces of land, whose ownership is largely academic in practice . . vested in persons who have no interest in any adjoining land, and who may well not even be aware that they own part of the highway. It is in the interest of the parties to a conveyance that the purchaser takes the adjoining highway land, essentially for the same reason. On that basis, if the adjoining owner happens to own more than half the width of the adjoining road, even all the adjoining road, it would seem logical that the presumption should lead to his being deemed to convey away the whole of his interest in the adjoining road.’

Judges:

Romer J

Citations:

[1898] 1 Ch 659

Cited by:

CitedPaton and Another v Todd ChD 11-May-2012
The claimants sought leave to appeal against rejection of their request made to the Deputy Adjudicator for the rectification of the title to land they claimed title to land which was registered to the respondent neighbour.
Held: The claimant’s . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land

Updated: 15 May 2022; Ref: scu.538893