Re Ellenborough Park
| Re Ellenborough Park | |
|---|---|
Ellenborough Park | |
| Court | Court of Appeal |
| Full case name | [the trustees for the statutory and will trusts of the park landowners (deceased)] [very detailed names and descriptions, never cited in full] -and- Helen Maddison (Married Woman) and Fred Allen [a selection of the owners of the neighbouring houses] |
| Decided | 15 November 1955 |
| Citations |
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| Transcript | The court-approved transcript at bailii.org |
| Case history | |
| Prior action | Appellant (a fiduciary "representative" rather than a hostile litigant) also "lost" at first instance before Danckwerts J (in the High Court) |
| Subsequent action | none |
| Case opinions | |
| Held: "we can see no difference in principle between Ellenborough Park and a garden in the ordinary signification of that word. It is the collective garden of the neighbouring houses to whose use it was dedicated by the owners of the estate and as such amply satisfied, in our judgment, the requirement of connection with the dominant tenements to which it is appurtenant. The result is not affected by the circumstance that the right to the park is in this case enjoyed by some few houses which are not immediately fronting on the park. ... The right here ... is, for reasons already given, one appurtenant to the surrounding houses as such, and constitutes a beneficial attribute of residence in a house as ordinarily understood. Its use for the purposes, not only of exercise and rest but also for such normal domestic purposes as were suggested in argument – for example, for taking out small children in prams or otherwise – is not fairly to be described as one of mere recreation or amusement, and is clearly beneficial to the premises to which it is attached." | |
| Decision by | Sir Raymond Evershed MR (reading the judgment of the court) |
| Concurrence | |
| Keywords | |
| Scope of law of easements; creation of easements; express easement and/or easement by prescription; whether right to use park in title deeds an easement; nature of rights capable of forming an easement in law | |
Re Ellenborough Park [1955] EWCA Civ 4 was an English land law case which reformulated the tests for an easement (the scope of the law of easements). It found an easement to use a communal garden to be a valid easement in law. There is no requirement for all of the houses to be immediately next to the garden to benefit from it.