Cases - Bakewell Management Ltd v Brandwood
Record details
- Name
- Bakewell Management Ltd v Brandwood
- Date
- [2004]
- Citation
- UKHL 14
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Easements - Law of Property Act, s. 193(4)
- Summary
-
The defendant appealed against a decision that he was not entitled by reason of more than 20 years' uninterrupted use to a right of way for vehicles across a common owned by the claimant. The defendant, who needed to use the common to gain access to the nearest public road, accepted that neither the claimant nor its predecessors in title had given permission for the common to be used for vehicular access.
Although it is an offence under the Law of Property Act 1925, section 193(4) to drive without lawful authority on a common, and despite no lawful authority having ever been given to drive on the common, the House of Lords held that the defendant did acquire a right (by lost modern grant), since a right of way could have been granted by the claimant or its predecessor in title which would have made the use lawful. Only where the grantor could not lawfully make the grant would it be impossible for a prescriptive right to arise.