Platt v Crouch
Section 62 can create an easement without prior diversity of occupation, where the right was continuous and apparent.
Facts
The owners of a hotel on the Norfolk Broads sold the hotel, but kept some adjoining land, including river banks where hotel guests had moored boats. The hotel's guests had used moorings on the retained land, and the hotel's signs were displayed there. After the sale, the purchasers claimed easements to use the moorings and to keep the signs on the retained land.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal held that the purchasers had easements, created by section 62 of the Law of Property Act 1925. Peter Gibson LJ said that, where the right in question is continuous and apparent, it is not necessary for there to have been prior diversity of occupation of the two parts of the land. The rights had been used for the hotel business and were obvious on inspection, so they passed under section 62.
Related cases on easements
- Batchelor v Marlow [2001] EWCA Civ 1051, [2003] 1 WLR 764
- Copeland v Greenhalf [1952] Ch 488
- Dalton v Angus & Co (1881) 6 App Cas 740
- Re Ellenborough Park [1956] Ch 131
- Hill v Tupper (1863) 2 H & C 121
- Mills v Silver [1991] Ch 271
- Moncrieff v Jamieson [2007] UKHL 42, [2007] 1 WLR 2620
- Nickerson v Barraclough [1981] Ch 426
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