Londons High Court was today asked to rule against Earl Cadogan’s objections to a Chelsea housing scheme by agreeing that the working classes have ceased to exist.
In a bizarre legal battle to block plans for a four-home development in Chelsea by London-based Dano, Earl Cadogan, one of Britain’s wealthiest landowners, claims that, on the basis of a 1929 covenant, the land can only be used “for the housing of the working classes.”
However, Dano today told Mr Justice Etherton that there is no certainty about who may or may not be from the “working classes” and that the covenant on property in Chelsea would impose a commercial obstacle to its plans.
Dano is asking Mr Justice Etherton in the High Court to rule that the covenant is unenforceable and without effect and that the words “working classes” are no longer capable of any meaningful definition.
It also argues that the restriction limiting occupation of the planned development to the working classes cannot be enforced.
Opening the case today, Michael Barnes QC, counsel for Dano, told the judge: “The expression working classes means those who are employed to work for wages in manual or industrial occupations.
“That expression had a clear meaning and capacity for operation in 1929. Since then economic and social conditions have changed dramatically.
“Persons engaged in such occupations are now far more numerous and their incomes in absolute terms and relative to the rest of the community have increased enormously.
“Some persons in such occupations earn more than in some professions. It is not possible to say today with any degree of certainty or precision what is meant by the working classes or whether any person is within that description.”
The property at the centre of the battle is a disused pub, formerly known as the Rat and Parrot, at 60 and 62 Chelsea Manor Street in Chelsea, London, which Dano bought from Kensingston and Chelsea council in July 2000.
Dano has planning permission to build four houses with garages on the site.
In November 2001, however, Earl Cadogan, Cadogan Holdings, Cadogan Estates and Oakley Investments wrote to Dano saying they had an interest in land adjoining or neighbouring the property which forms part of the Cadogan Settled Estate in Chelsea.
They said that under a conveyance made on 27 May 1929, use of the property is restricted to housing the working class.
Dano of 14 Yardley Street, Wilmington Square, London WC1, disputes they have an interest in land forming part of the Chelsea Settled Estate or an interest in land adjoining or neighbouring the property, and says there is no land for which the benefit of the covenant can be claimed.
It says that since the 1929 conveyance was made, the property has never been used for housing the working class, or for any form of housing, and was used as the Rat and Parrot from 1929 until around 1999, when it fell into disuse.
It is now said to be derelict and Dano claims that there was never any objection by Earl Cadogan or the companies to use of the land for a pub.
Earl Cadogan, however, claims that the words, “the working classes”, remain in common usage and should be construed as meaning “persons in lower income groups.”
He claims it is unsustainable to argue that the words are incapable of any meaning today.
EGi News 29/01/03
