Legal firm James Beauchamp has won a challenge to a preliminary High Court ruling in proceedings for professional negligence brought by Nationwide Building Society.
Nationwide had claimed that it faced difficulties in selling land at Hunter’s Lodge, Stoke Hammond, Buckinghamshire, because prospective purchasers feared they would not acquire from Nationwide, as mortgagee in possession, the right to construct roads on the estate.
However, reversing an earlier High Court decision, Peter Gibson LJ said that the borrowers had a right, if necessary, to enter the land to construct the roads, footpaths and accesses to adoption standards, and that upon taking possession of the plots of land Nationwide was also entitled to this right.
Nationwide Building Society v James Beauchamp Court of Appeal (Peter Gibson, Mummery and Rix LJJ) 2 March 2001.
David Hodge QC (instructed by Pinsent Curtis, of Birmingham) appeared for the appellant; Caroline Hutton (instructed by Howes Percival, of Milton Keynes) appeared for the respondent.
PLS News 5/3/01
