The parties owned adjoining agricultural land divided by a dry ditch. The Plaintiffs built an enclosing wall on their own side of the ditch, cutting themselves off from access to the ditch.
Held: The true boundary between the properties lay along the middle line of the ditch. The erection of the wall accordingly left unenclosed a narrow strip of land belonging to the Plaintiffs; the real boundary, though known to both parties, remaining unmarked. The Plaintiffs afterwards brought an action to restrain the Defendant from trespassing on the strip by tipping earth and rubbish upon it and against the wall. The Defendant contended that by the erection of the wall the Plaintiffs had abandoned the strip and that the Defendant had acquired exclusive possession and retained it for more than the period required to establish a possessory title under the Statute of Limitations then in force. The only evidence of such possession by the Defendant was that cattle belonging to its tenants had been allowed to graze such herbage as grew in the ditch and on the strip between it and the wall. There had been no abandonment or discontinuance of possession by the Plaintiffs. ‘It would be disastrous to hold that the mere occasional straying of cattle over a known boundary by reason of there not being a fence or anything of that kind is, as against the true owner, an act of such exclusive possession as will enable the trespasser whose cattle have strayed over the boundary to acquire a statutory title. In my opinion, this is a perfectly plain case.’
Judges:
Joyce J, Fletcher Moulton LJ
Citations:
[1912] 1 Ch 527
Cited by:
Cited – Mayor and Burgesses of London Borough of Hounslow v Anne Minchinton CA 19-Mar-1997
The defendant asserted title to a strip of land by adverse possession. The judge had held that the occupation by the claimant had been insufficient to establish possession.
Held: The use of the land as a garden for compost heaps and similar . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Land
Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.195613