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England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions >> London Borough Of Lambeth v Blackburn [2001] EWCA Civ 668 (10 April 2001) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2001/668.html Cite as: [2001] EWCA Civ 668 |
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IN THE COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION)
ON APPEAL FROM LAMBETH COUNTY COURT
(His Honour Judge Cox)
Strand London WC2 Tuesday, 10th April 2001 |
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B e f o r e :
LADY JUSTICE ARDEN
____________________
LONDON BOROUGH OF LAMBETH | ||
Claimant/Respondent | ||
- v - | ||
JACK BLACKBURN | ||
Defendant/Applicant |
____________________
Smith Bernal Reporting Limited, 190 Fleet Street,
London EC4A 2AG
Tel: 0171 421 4040
Official Shorthand Writers to the Court)
appeared on behalf of the Applicant.
The Respondent did not appear and was not represented.
____________________
Crown Copyright ©
Tuesday, 20th April 2001
"the animus possidendi involves the intention, in one's own name and on one's own behalf, to exclude the world at large, including the owner with the paper title if he be not himself the possessor, so far as is reasonably practicable and so far as the process of the law will allow."
"...`what is required for this purpose is not an intention to own or even an intention to acquire ownership but an intention to possess' - that is to say, an intention for the time being to possess the land to the exclusion of all other persons, including the owner with the paper title."
"The learned judge also considered that there was a third ground upon which the claim" [that is the claim to adverse possession in that case] "should be rejected, viz., that until 1947 the defendant's entry upon the land was not made with intent to oust the true owner. This was based upon an admission of the defendant at the trial when he said:
`I would have paid rent on the land in dispute if anyone had come along. Nobody showed up. I didn't try very had to find the owner. If somebody had come along I would either have taken a lease or got off the land. After I had been on the land for seven years I started claiming the land.'
Their Lordships do not consider that an admission of this kind, which any candid squatter hoping in due course to acquire possessory title would be almost bound to make, indicates an absence of the animus possidendi necessary to constitute adverse possession. But the other grounds relied on by the judge are valid and in themselves sufficient to defeat the defendant's claim for a possessory title."
"It is one thing to lock the door of the flat - to guard it and its contents against the depredations of ill-willed individuals; quite another to suggest that by so doing the applicant was manifesting an intention to possess as against the owner."
"...before that, obviously if I hadn't put a lock on, I mean, I understood someone could just come and throw me out."