B, the freehold owner of Blackacre, granted a right of way over it to A, the lessee of Three-acre; one year later A acquired the freehold title to Three-acre and his leasehold interest then merged in the freehold; he subsequently leased part of Three-acre to C who sought to exercise the right of way over Blackacre. B contended that C had no such right because it was attached only to A’s leasehold estate, which had been extinguished.
Held: The argument was rejected. The right of way continued for the benefit of the freehold estate. Having regard to ‘the whole tone and tenour of the deed, and the fact that John Drummond shortly afterwards acquired the fee’, he concluded: ‘The true construction is that, so long as the Drummonds, or either of them, or the heirs or assigns of either of them were interested, this right of way was to subsist. The probability is, and it is not an unnatural inference to draw, that it was within the contemplation of the parties that the Drummonds might obtain the fee simple in one or more of the plots in which they had then only a limited interest, and that in that case the right of way should continue. I can see nothing illegal in such an agreement, and if that is the contract no such doctrine as that the covenant was with the reversioner, who has destroyed the reversion, arises.’
Judges:
Byrne J
Citations:
[1897] 1 Ch 528
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Wall v Collins and Another CA 17-May-2007
Properties, when leasehold, had acquired rights of way by prescription over neighbouring land. The freehold interests were acquired, and the claimant now appealed a decision that the right of way acquired under his lease had disappeared.
Held: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Land
Updated: 06 December 2022; Ref: scu.252422