''J A Pye (Oxford) Ltd and Others v Graham and another''

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is an English land law judgment from the final court of appeal at the time, the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

, on

adverse possession Adverse possession, sometimes colloquially described as "squatter's rights", is a legal principle in the Anglo-American common law under which a person who does not have legal title to a piece of property—usually land ( real property)—ma ...

Facts

The company claimant acted at all times through its director, Mr Pye. Pye allowed his neighbours the Grahams to use he owned, valued at £10,000,000, under a grazing agreement. The document expressly stated that the agreement would end on the 31 December 1983 and that to continue the arrangement a new contract would need to be entered into. Pye did not enter into another agreement because he wanted to develop the land but the Grahams continued to occupy the land. After 12 years the Grahams sought to obtain it under the law of

Judgment

High Court

In the High Court Neuberger J ruled that under the Land Registration Act 1925 the Grahams were the lawful owners of the land as Pye had failed to take possession of this land. The case admitted in its final, unanimous, judgment that most similar instances of adverse possession in registered land will be averted on the commencement of the Land Registration Act 2002 (which took place on 13 October 2003).

Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal overturned the ruling of the High Court and held that the Grahams were only using the land because of the grazing agreement, thus they hadn't been in possession of it.

House of Lords

The House of Lords unanimously rejected the Court of Appeal's decision and restored the decision of Neuberger J. This was one of the last cases to be decided before the

Land Registration Act 2002 The Land Registration Act 2002c 9 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which repealed and replaced previous legislation governing land registration, in particular the Land Registration Act 1925, which governed an earlier, though sim ...

came into force, which required that any land acquired through adverse possession had to be registered using the Land Registry. As such a registration would result in the original owner being informed this would allow them to object to such possession. The effect is to make it far more difficult and unlikely to acquire registered land through squatting.

European Court of Human Rights

The case's application of the common law applying the LRA 1925 as it stood (before repealed with effect from 13 October 2003 by the LRA 2002) was litigated as ''J. A. Pye (Oxford) Ltd and Another v United Kingdom'' in the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...

. The ECtHR originally ruled that obtaining property via adverse possession was contrary to Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to the peaceful enjoyment of one's possessions). On appeal, the Grand Chamber subsequently held that although there was an interference with Convention rights, it was a proportionate and thus permissible interference; see ''J. A. Pye (Oxford) Ltd and Another v United Kingdom'' (2007) 46 EHRR 1083. English law on adverse possession was therefore human-rights compliant.

References

External links

''J A Pye (Oxford) Ltd and Others v Graham and Another''
{{DEFAULTSORT:J A Pye (Oxford) Ltd And Others V Graham House of Lords cases 2002 in case law 2002 in British law English property case law English land case law