The High Court has been asked to rule on a dispute over the ownership of a slipway at Cowes in a case centring on claims by the defendants to have acquired rights by adverse possession.
Southampton Isle of Wight & South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet plc – known as “Red Funnel” – has issued a writ against Rex Knapper, Malcolm Jenkins and Sandbourne Properties Ltd, seeking a declaration as to the parties’ rights and interests in the Victoria Slipway and an order for possession of it.
Red Funnel claims it has owned the slipway on the River Medina at Cowes since buying it in 1920, and denies that the defendants have acquired any rights in it.
In addition to the adverse possession issue, the claim involves complex matters of land registration and proprietary estoppel in relation to land that, according to the writ, is of a potentially significant commercial value, although that value is at present unquantifiable.
A date has not yet been fixed for hearing of the case.
PLS News 8/11/00
