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Easement Right of way
Chancery Division
Roth J
1 November 2010
Right of way - Prescription - Lost modem grant - Claimant company owning access road - Earlier owner of defendant's land using access road under personal licence - Later owners continuing to use access road after expiry of licence - Claimant seeking injunction restraining defendant from trespassing on access road - Whether defendant acquiring right to use access road - Claim dismissed
The claimant and the defendant owned adjacent hotels. The defendant's hotel, which it purchased in 2002, was the older of the two. A private service road that skirted the defendant's main building lay on land belonging to the claimant. Successive owners of the defendant's hotel had used the road since the claimant's hotel was constructed.
That use had initially been pursuant to a personal licence granted by the then owner of the claimant's land to the then owner of the defendant's hotel in 1973 (the 1973 licence). The licence had expired in 1980, when the ownership of the defendant's hotel changed hands. However, the access road continued to be used for deliveries and bycoaches taking passengers to the defendant's hotel.
That use continued until 2007, at which tune the claimant asserted that the defendant had no rights over...