R: David Frank DeVere v Land Registry Canal & River Trust and Others (Interested Parties)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | HH Judge Anthony Thornton QC,HH Judge Anthony Thornton |
| Judgment Date | 21 October 2013 |
| Neutral Citation | [2013] EWHC 2477 (Admin) |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court) |
| Docket Number | Case Nos: CO/10365/2010 |
| Date | 21 October 2013 |
[2013] EWHC 2477 (Admin)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
His Honour Judge Anthony Thornton QC
Sitting as a deputy judge of the High Court
Case Nos: CO/10365/2010
CO/1964/2011
and
and
The Claimant appeared in person
The Land Registry was not represented
Mr Christopher Stoner QC (instructed by Shoosmiths) appeared for Canal & River Trust
Mr Christopher Stoner QC (instructed by Legal Department, Port of London Authority) appeared for Port of London Authority
Mr Nigel Moore appeared in person
Mr James Mason was not represented. He served an acknowledgment of service, summary grounds supporting the claim and a skeleton submission prior to the hearing on 21 December 2011. He attended that hearing but elected to take no part in the hearing or in the post-hearing exchanges of further submissions
Hearing dates: 17 November and 21 December 2011 and a series of post-hearing written submissions, 4 October 2013
A. Introduction
This judgment is concerned with two renewed applications for permission to apply for judicial review. The applications relate to separate claims which were heard together since they are closely connected and are concerned with two decisions of the Chief Registrar ("registrar") to HM Land Registry ("the Land Registry") to register the title of two adjacent and separate parcels of land beneath and adjacent to the Grand Union Canal ("GUC") at Brentford in London. The relevant stretch of the canal runs into the River Thames and has the River Brent running within or close by it.
The first claim is concerned with the first decision, dated 2 July 2010, to register the title of a stretch of the canal and part of its adjacent riparian land that has the Land Registry reference AGL 166926 ("the canal land"). This land was previously unregistered and it runs from the mouth of the junction of the GUC with the River Thames to a point just East of Workhouse Dock. Its registration followed a first registration application made by the British Waterways Board ("BWB") and a Land Registry Adjudicator's ("the adjudicator") award in favour of BWB. However, the registration is now standing in the name of BWB's statutory successor, the Canal & River Trust ("CRT"), to whom BWB's assets and registered titles have been transferred.
The second claim is concerned with the second decision, dated 6 December 2010 to register the title of an "E" shaped stretch of the old channel of the River Brent ("the old river land"). This land is adjacent to part of the canal land and it followed a first registration application made by the Port of London Authority ("PLA"). It has the Land Registry reference AGL 202024.
Each application formed part of an extensive and still on-going exercise by BWB and now CRT to register its surviving unregistered interests in a lengthy stretch of the GUC and by the PLA to register its surviving unregistered interests in the old bed of the River Brent and a stretch of the northern bank of the River Thames at and adjacent to Brentford Ait which runs from the mouth of the GUC towards, alongside and away from Brentford Ait. These registration exercises have given rise to considerable controversy that have particularly involved the claimant in both judicial review claims, Mr David DeVere as well as the interested party in the first claim, Mr Nigel Moore, who participated in the renewed applications hearing and a second interested party in that claim who did not participate in them, Mr James Mason.
Mr DeVere seeks permission to apply to set aside both decisions of the registrar. The defendant in both claims is, therefore, the Land Registry which has lodged an acknowledgement of service and summary grounds of defence in both claims but has taken no further part in these judicial reviews.
Mr DeVere, Mr Moore and Mr Mason's concerns about CRT's registration as owner of the canal land interest arise from their claimed entitlement to moor their respective craft at separate moorings on the canal, and hence within the canal land, at Point Wharf in the case of Mr DeVere, Workhouse Dock in the case of Mr Moore and Guy's Wharf in the case of Mr Mason. Mr DeVere also has concerns about PLA's attempt to register title to the old river land because, he asserts, the basis of his objection to that registration application are the same as, or similar to, his objections to the canal application. He also has concerns about PLA's apparently unrelated attempt to register ownership of the bank and adjacent land at Brentford Ait because he moved his houseboat from Point Wharf to a mooring point at Waterman's Park located within the area of land that PLA has applied to register ownership of. He has challenged PLA's application to register title and that challenge has been the subject of a referral to and a decision of the adjudicator. Mr DeVere seeks to rely on his grounds of challenge in that adjudication since he contends that, if he is successful, he can and should be entitled to prevent BWB and PLA's canal and old river registrations on those grounds. In short, Mr DeVere is challenging all three applications because, he contends, his grounds of objection to all three applications are inter-related and have essential common features.
It follows that, although the two judicial review claims give rise to limited issues, they cannot be readily resolved without a detailed consideration of Mr DeVere's many cases against the BWB and the PLA involving the mooring of his houseboat at Point Wharf and its subsequent mooring at Waterman's Park, Mr Moore's and his company's several cases against BWB involving, in the main, his moored houseboat and other moored craft at Workhouse Dock, Mr Mason's use of moorings at Guy's Wharf and the mooring claims of a number of individuals including Mr DeVere along the northern bank of the River Thames at Brentford Ait that form part of various objections to PLA's River Thames application.
B. The Grand Union Canal and River Thames
The GUC was originally constructed as the Grand Junction Canal pursuant to the Grand Junction Canal Act 1793 ("the 1793 Act"). The preamble to the 1793 Act is as follows:
"An Act for making and maintaining a Navigable Canal for the Oxford Canal Navigation, at Braunston, in the County of Northampton, to join the River Thames at or near Brentford, in the County of Middlesex, and also certain Collateral Cuts from the said intended Canal"
The Act established the Company of Proprietors of the Grand Junction Canal which was empowered to purchase land and construct the canal which was to "unite with the River Thames at the place where the eastern branch of the River Brent is received by the Thames". This is a reference to the fact that, at that time, the River Brent flowed around and to the south of Brentford in an ox-bow shape, and then divided into two branches at the point where it met the north-western tip of the then town meadow. One such branch flowed into the Thames to the east and the other to the south- east. The original proposal was that the canal should utilise part of the south-eastern branch, but by the time of the passing of the 1793 Act, it had been agreed by all concerned that the relevant part of the canal would be constructed by means of a series of cuts to straighten up the eastern branch.
The two major local landowners whose lands would be affected by the construction of the relevant part of the canal were James Clitherow and Dr Robert Johnson. Section V of the 1793 Act recites that:
"… a map or plan, describing the line of the said intended canal from the said River Brent, along the eastern branch thereof, till its junction with the River Thames aforesaid, and the lands through which the same is intended to be carried, together with reference containing a list of the names of the owners, or reputed owners and occupiers, of such lands, hath been made and signed by James Clitherow Esquire, and Robert Wallace Johnson Esquire, principal owners of such lands …" 1.
On 1 January 1929, the undertaking, property and powers of the Company of Proprietors of the Grand Junction Canal were vested in the Regent's Canal and Dock Company by statute 2. The Transport Act 1947 vested the undertaking and property of the Regent's Canal and Dock Company in the British Transport Commission and they were, in
turn, vested in the BWB by the Transport Act 1962 and, in turn, they were vested in the CRT 3 on 2 July 2012.The GUC is largely constructed so that the River Brent was incorporated within the canal over much of its length from its junction with the River Thames to below Osterley Lock. Neighbouring land was acquired by agreement or by use of the promoting Act's compulsory purchase powers and in some stretches the River Brent was canalised. In one stretch, which is within the first of the registered parcels with which I am concerned, the River Brent was, in effect, by-passed due to its severe bends. That and similar stretches remained in the ownership of the successive companies in whom the canal was vested but, by an agreement reached between the BWB and the PLA on 24 February 2010, that part of the bed of the old River Brent that fell within the first registered parcel — which was accordingly...
To continue reading
Request your trial