Powell v McFarlane
Grazing a cow and cutting hay on land was not enough to show factual possession or an intention to possess, especially by a boy who was 14 when he began.
Facts
Mr Powell, when he was 14, began to graze his family's cow on neighbouring land owned by Mr McFarlane, and later cut hay, did some fencing, and used the land for shooting and other purposes. Over 12 years later, he claimed that he had acquired title by adverse possession.
Legal principle
Slade J held that Mr Powell had not acquired title. He said that factual possession signifies an appropriate degree of physical control, which must be single and conclusive, and that the question is whether the alleged possessor has been dealing with the land as an occupying owner might have been expected to deal with it, and that no one else has done so. The intention to possess means an intention, in one's own name and on one's own behalf, to exclude the world at large, including the owner, so far as is reasonably practicable. The acts relied on were equivocal, and a boy of 14 was unlikely to have had the necessary intention. Slade J's statement of the law was approved by the House of Lords in JA Pye v Graham.
Related cases on adverse possession
- Buckinghamshire County Council v Moran [1990] Ch 623
- Fairweather v St Marylebone Property Co Ltd [1963] AC 510
- Hounslow London Borough Council v Minchinton (1997) 74 P & CR 221
- IAM Group plc v Chowdrey [2012] EWCA Civ 505
- JA Pye (Oxford) Ltd v Graham [2002] UKHL 30, [2003] 1 AC 419
- JA Pye (Oxford) Ltd v United Kingdom (2008) 46 EHRR 45
- Leigh v Jack (1879) 5 Ex D 264
- Ofulue v Bossert [2009] UKHL 16, [2009] 1 AC 990
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