SUBDIVISION OF LAND.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18367, 28 April 1925, Page 7

SUBDIVISION OF LAND.

INTERESTING POINT DECIDED.

LEGAL POSITION OF A LAND REGISTRAR.

The question as to whether an owner of land within a borough, who sells a part of it and retains the balance, "subdivides the same for the purpose of sale" within the meaning of the Municipal Corporations Act, was decided by the Full Court in judgments given at Wellington, last week, ty Mr Justice Sim, Mr Justice Reed, and Mr Justice Ostler. *

The plaintiffs, in the transactions were the Churel} Property Trustees and Robert Landell Saunders, and the defendant in each case was the Registrar of Deeds of the Canterbury Deeds Registration District. , Mr Justice Reed, in the course of his judgment, said "that if a persou, owning land within a borough, sold a part of it and retained the balance, he did not thereby subdivide, his land for the purposes of sale within frhe meaning of section 335 of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1920. In order to bring a sale of property within that section there must be something in the nature of a schema or plan of subdivision, the public being invited to purchase bv reference to such scheme or plan. In the case of the Church Property Trustees there was an area of 70 acres, which was put up for sale as a block. It was not sold. Subsequently the Christchurch Drainage Board purchased by private contract a small piece of the land, an area of 20 perches, fronting on a public road. The Registrar demanded a plan of subdivision ; this was acquiesced in and the convevanoe was duly. registered. Later Canterbury College agreed to purchase an area of seme 15-acres situated on the north-east corner of the land and bounded on two sides by public roads. The Registrar refused to register the conveyance unless a plan of subdivision was submitted and approved by the Borough Council. .This was resisted, and the matter came lyefore the Court on an originating summons which raised the question of the right of the .Registrar to so refuse. As already indicated, the Registrar was not- in" law entitled to refuse to register on the grounds suggested by him, and the question submitted would be answered accordingly. . . "The case of Saunders v. District Land Registrar was a summons to show why the District Land Registrar should not register a transfer of a piece of land cut off a larger piece, the balance of the land being regained by the vendor with no present intention of selling it. The position here was the same, and there would be an order directing the Registrar to register the transfer, with cc*ts to be paid out of the Land Assurance Fund -Account. In the Church Property Trustees' case there would be no costs." - Mr Justice Sim said: "I in Saunders's case an order should be made directing the Registrar to register the transfer, and directing the costs of both parties to be paid out of the Assurance Fund. Mr Saunders & costs would be fixed at 30 guineas and disbursements, and the" Registrar's at £ls 15s. In the other case an order should be made declaring that the defendant was not right in law.in re-

fusing to register the conveyances in question. As there was no fund out of -which the costs of the originating summons could be ordered to be paid, the parties would have to be%r their own costs." Mr Justice Ostler concurred with the decision of the other members of the Bench. At the hearing Mi- H. D. Andrews CChristchurch) appeared for the plaintiff Church Trustees, and Mr Saunders conducted his case in person. Mr A. T. Donnelly represented the defendant.

We are informed that the practical effect of the Full Court's decision is that if a sale is not a subdivision in the sense of the word in the Public Works Act, then it is not a subdivision under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1920, and the consent of the local authority is not required to the sale. The term "subdivide" was definitely interpreted in Palmer's case (1903), and two years later, in the Land Transfer Act and Public Works Act, 25th vol. N.Z. Law Reports, p. 385, the Court of Appeal adopted that definition or interpretation with a slight modification. During the. last two or three yews, however the Registrar-General and various District Land Registrars have acted on the assumption that the term had a narrower meaning in Section 335 of the Municipal Corporations Act.