Chancery Plc v Ketteringham
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 23 September 1993 |
| Date | 23 September 1993 |
| Court | Chancery Division |
Chancery Division
Before Mr David Neuberger, QC
Land - charge over registered land - right to deal despite rights of prior cautioner
The proprietor of a legal charge over registered land, validly entered on the charges register with the consent of a person who had, pursuant to section 54 of the Land Registration Act 1925, previously procured the entry of a caution on the proprietorship register, might deal with the land in question free of any rights of such prior cautioner.
Mr David Neuberger QC, sitting as a deputy judge of the Chancery Division, so held in declaring that the plaintiff, Chancery plc, was entitled to deal with a block of flats at 3 Alton Road, Parkstone, Poole, Dorset, free of any rights therein of the defendant, Ralph Daniel Ketteringham, by reason of an agreement by the freeholder to grant him a long lease of one of the flats and his entry of a caution to that effect in the proprietorship register.
Mr Ernest Scamell for the plaintiff; Mr Daniel Gerrans for the defendant.
HIS LORDSHIP said that in December 1987 a firm of developers, B&C, had simultaneously acquired the freehold of premises and agreed with the defendant to grant him, in consideration of a premium of £95,000, a long lease of one of the flats which B&C proposed to build there.
In February 1988 B&C were registered as proprietors of the premises with title absolute and on March 11 a caution was entered on the proprietorship register in favour of the defendant.
During March, B&C negotiated a loan facility from the plaintiff on terms which included granting it a charge over the freehold, and on May 18, in view of the registration of the defendant's caution, it sought the defendant's consent to the creation of the charge in favour of the plaintiff.
After the defendant's solicitors had enquired, and been told, inter alia, the amount to be lent and secured by the charge, they wrote on June 3 to the Land Registry, with a copy to B&C's solicitors, giving their consent to the registration of a legal charge in favour of the plaintiff.
On June 8, the plaintiff agreed to provide B&C with a facility of £570,000 and on June 27, B&C executed in the plaintiff's favour a legal charge of the freehold, which the plaintiff caused to be entered in the land charges register.
The defendant went into occupation of the flat in August 1989, but no lease was granted to him; and the plaintiff now sought to enforce its charge against...
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