A firm of genealogists has asked the Court of Appeal to rule on a ground-breaking legal dispute over the £50,000 proceeds of sale of a school in Canterbury. The case will have implications for the sale of redundant schools nationwide.
The school land was originally conveyed to the Vicar and Churchwarden of Chartham by Evan Lake in 1872, with a provision that it should revert to his estate should it cease to be used as a school.
In 1991 genealogists Simon and Nathan Fraser, who specialise in locating the next of kin in inheritance cases, spotted a newspaper advertisement giving notice that the land was to cease being used for school purposes and was to revert to Lake’s estate. The advert also indicated that Canterbury Diocesan Board of Finance intended to seek an order from the Education Secretary extinguishing any rights the Lake family might have to inherit the land.
However, the Frasers successfully unearthed Lakes surviving descendants and paid the family £2,500 for an assignment of their claim on the estate. And when the board sold the land in 1992 the Frasers sought to recover the value of the land.
The High Court rejected their claim, but now the brothers have mounted a test-case challenge to that decision in the Court of Appeal.
The case hinges on complex rules on reversion of land donated for school sites. The appeal judges were told today that ownership of many hundreds of schools had already reverted in the same way as the Canterbury school.
Charles Turnbull, counsel for the Frasers, told the court that the proceeds of sale of many of them had now been set aside in deposit accounts pending a court ruling on the true legal position.
He argued that the High Court decision was wrong and that once use of the school had ceased, it reverted to Lakes relatives, who were entitled to enter into the deal to sell their rights in the land to the Frasers.
The hearing is expected to last two days.
PLS News 20/10/00
