Adverse possession – Application to register title to part of highway – Application cancelled by registrar on ground of impossibility of acquiring title over highway by adverse possession – Whether acquisition of title possible – Claim dismissed
The claimant applied to the defendant to register the freehold title to land upon which he had parked caravans. He claimed to have acquired by adverse possession. The land in question formed part of a route that was designated on the definitive map and statement for the area as a byway open to all traffic. As such, it was a highway maintainable at public expense, title to which vested by statute in the interested party as highway authority. The assistant land registrar cancelled the claimant’s application on the grounds that, as a matter of law, title over a highway could not be acquired by adverse possession and that, in any event, the claimant’s evidence of factual possession and intention to possess was insufficient.
The claimant brought judicial review proceedings to quash that decision. In support of the registrar’s decision, the defendant contended that the asserted adverse possession would inevitably amount to the criminal offence of obstructing the highway, contrary to section 137 of the Highways Act 1980, which the highways authority could not authorise, and that the claimant could not acquire rights through criminal acts of that kind.
