Central London Commercial Estates Ltd v Kato Kagaku Ltd and Another
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 15 July 1998 |
| Date | 15 July 1998 |
| Court | Chancery Division |
Chancery Division
Before Mr Justice Sedley
Land registration - surrender of leasehold interest - squatter acquired rights of leaseholder
By operation of the statutory trust created by section 75(1) of the Land Registration Act 1925, the surrender of a leasehold interest in registered land did not defeat the rights of a squatter who had acquired the right to seek registration of a leasehold title acquired by adverse possession, even where the squatter had yet to utilise the right to seek registration of his leasehold estate.
Mr Justice Sedley, sitting as an additional judge of the Chancery Division, so held in a reserved judgment, deciding as a preliminary issue that the first defendants, Kato Kagaku Ltd, had, by December 20, 1996, acquired by reason of their adverse possession of the west courtyard of Bush House, Strand, London, the right as against the plaintiffs, Central London Commercial Estates Ltd, to remain in possession of the west courtyard until the expiry of the term of the lease on December 25, 2028.
Section 75 of the Land Registration Act 1925 provides:
"(1) The Limitation Acts shall apply to registered land in the same manner and to the same extent as those Acts apply to land not registered except that where, if the land were not registered, the estate of the person registered as proprietor would be extinguished, such estate shall not be extinguished but shall be deemed to be held by the proprietor for the time being in trust for the person who by virtue of the said Acts, has acquired title against any proprietor, but without prejudice to the estates and interests of any other person interested in the land whose estate or interest is not extinguished by those Acts."
Mr Romie Tager, QC and Mr Alexander Goold for the plaintiffs; Mr Christopher Nugee, QC for Kato Kagaku Ltd and the Secretary of State for the Environment; Mr Terence Etherton, QC, for Axa Equity and Law Life Assurance Society plc, third party.
MR JUSTICE SEDLEY said that the preliminary issue raised the vexed but hitherto unresolved question of real property law of whether section 75 of the 1925 Act prevented the registered leaseholder of land from giving the freeholder a right to immediate possession against the erstwhile squatter by surrendering the remainder of his term after more than 12 years adverse possession by a trespasser.
In the present case the freeholder...
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Beaulane Properties Ltd v Palmer
...was intended to achieve the same effect. See the Law Commission's Consultative Document para. 10.17 and the discussion in Central London Commercial Estates v. Kato Ltd [1998] 4 All E.R. 104 Section 75(4) gives no right to the registered owner who has been dispossessed, and appears to be of......