views of property

Question 1

Semayne’s Case 1604 5 Co. Rep 91a, 77 ER 194

Answer 1

sheriifs wanted to enter the house of 2 individuals- without a warrant - whether they had the right to enter the house
‘the house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress…’

Question 2

Entick v Carrington 95 E.R. 807: trespass

Answer 2

The state may do nothing unless permitted by the law as defined in statute by Parliament and common law by the Courts
“….if this is law it would be found in our books, but no such law ever existed in this country; our law holds the property of every man so sacred, that no man can set his foot upon his neighbour’s close without his leave”.8

Question 3

Yearworth and others v North Bristol NHS Trust [2009] EWCA Civ 37

Answer 3

Damages inflicted to a substance generated by a person’s body, after its removal for storage purposes, does not constitute a bodily or ‘personal’ injury to him.
A person’s substance, in this case sperm, can be owned by them. However, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 can restrict the rights to the sperm despite ownership.

Question 4

National Provincial Bank v Ainsworth [1965] AC 1175

Answer 4

An equitable right or a personal nature is not binding on third parties and cannot be an overriding interest
“ it must be definable, identifiable by third parties, capable in its nature of assumption by third parties, and have some degree of permanence or stability” Lord wilberforce

Question 5

Hill v Tupper (1863) 2 Hurlstone and Coltman 121, 159 E.R.

Answer 5

A right must be connected to the enjoyment of the land, and not the business carried upon it, to be a valid easement
‘-A new species of property right cannot be created at the will and pleasure of the owner of property; but he must be content to accept the estate and the right to dispose of it subject to the law as settled by decisions or controlled by act of parliament’ (per Pollock), and that the law should not allow ‘the creation of an infinite variety of interests in land’ (per Martin).

Question 6

Tinsley v Milligan [1994] 1 AC 340

Answer 6

The influence of equity on property law
The co-existence of two legal systems - common law and equity (conscious based branch of the law) (we will meet Equity later in the course) – since the Judicature Acts 1873 and 1875, administered through the same courts:
:‘English law has one single law of property made up of legal and equitable interests’: Tinsley v Milligan [1994] 1 AC 340,Lord Browne Wilkinson at [371].