Re Ellenborough Park
[1956] Ch 131; [1955] EWCA Civ 419551 min read
The case in brief30-second read
- Facts
- Houses around Ellenborough Park, Weston-super-Mare, were sold with the right to enjoy the park as a pleasure ground. The question was whether the house owners held a legal easement over the park.
- Issue
- Was the right to use the communal park an easement?
- Held
- An easement has four characteristics: a dominant and a servient tenement; it must accommodate the dominant tenement; the two must be owned by different persons; and it must be capable of forming the subject matter of a grant.
- Principle
- An easement must (1) have a dominant and a servient tenement, (2) accommodate the dominant tenement, (3) have different owners of the two, and (4) be capable of forming the subject of a grant. A right accommodates the dominant land only if it is connected with its normal enjoyment, not merely of personal benefit to its owner.
Facts
- Houses around Ellenborough Park, Weston-super-Mare, were sold with the right to enjoy the park as a pleasure ground.
- The question was whether the house owners held a legal easement over the park.
Issue
- Was the right to use the communal park an easement?
Held
- An easement has four characteristics: a dominant and a servient tenement; it must accommodate the dominant tenement; the two must be owned by different persons; and it must be capable of forming the subject matter of a grant.
- To accommodate, the right must be connected with the normal enjoyment of the dominant land, not merely of personal advantage to its owner.
- The park was in a real sense the communal garden of the houses, so the right was a valid easement.
Cite this
Citation
Re Ellenborough Park [1956] Ch 131; [1955] EWCA Civ 4Reported: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/1955/4.html (English case; not on IK or SCI). This is an educational summary, not the judgment itself. Cite the reported version in professional or academic work.