COURT OF APPEAL

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10950, 12 July 1921, Page 5

COURT OF APPEAL

WIDENING GRANT ROAD. EASEMENT RIGHT BOUGHT. In the Court of Appeal yesterday, the Mayor and councillors and the people of Wellington appealed from the judgment of His Honour, Mr Justice Salmond, in a case surrounding the rights ot the corporation te a grant on the lands of Stowe and Cottle (since passed to the \ Public Trustee and Robert McDonald) sufficient to widen Graift road. The court comprised Their Honours, Mr Justice Sim, Acting-Chief Justice, Mr Justice Hosking, Mr Justice Reed, and Mr Justice Adams. \ Mr J. O’Shea appeared for the corporation, Mr G. G. Rose for the l’ubl lie Trustee, and Mr; O. C. Mazengarb for Robert McDonald. In the lower court Sir John Salmond decided that the corporation’s right was in the nature of an equitable easement, and that the agreement did not give the corporation the right to them and that ap agreement, transmuted into a legal easement, operated against the section of land formerly owned by Dottie. He therefore ruled that , it was not necessary to. have a trial to determine that the question as to whether the land by McDonald was affected by the easement. Mr O’Shea maintained, that there was an 'equitable right, that the court should enforce that right, by ordering the person granting it to enter into a a formal deedii Mr Rose for the Public Trustee, said that the judgment should be separated, not only pn tho ground on which it was given, but also because the contract granting the easement offended the rule against perpetuities. Mr Mazengarb argued that the agreement was not binding on Mr McDonald, as a purchaser, without notice of it, because it was a mere license, or personal contract, and that, if it gave the corporation a right for McDonald’s land, the right offended the rule against perpetuities. Their Honours reserved decision.