Mark Leonard Lamport & Ors v Stanley Thomas Jones

Facts

The claimants were the executors of the estate of Terence L Lamport, deceased, and Sybil Ann White; the defendant, Stanley Thomas Jones, owned Y Wern. The dispute concerned a right of way over a rough track about 155m long on the southern boundary of Y Wern. The defendant admitted a prescriptive easement 'for all purposes' benefiting Blaen Wern farm, a strip of land and Golygfa, where the fifth claimant lives. The principal dispute was the width of the easement: the defendant said 2.15m, the claimants said vehicles up to 2.5m had used it. Other issues were vehicle weight, the right to improve as well as repair, and cutting back hedges and trees. The dispute began in January 2020 when the defendant placed bollards on the track; the action began in June 2020 and an interim injunction followed in July 2020. The issues were tried as preliminary issues before HHJ Jarman KC, who found a prescriptive easement for vehicles with a wheelbase width of up to 2.5m, rejected any right to improve, and ruled on repair, a three-year injunction and costs. The judge held that the claimants had beaten their Part 36 offer of 27 August 2021 but that the consequences should not extend beyond 10 March 2022, the date to which the defendant's later offer was open. Lane J refused permission to appeal to both sides on the papers, and both renewed their applications at a rolled-up hearing.