Court Court of Appeal | Full case name Edna Crow v Robin Wood | |
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Citation(s) [1971] 1 QB 77, [1970] 3 WLR 516 | ||
Crow v Wood [1971] 1 QB 77 is an English land law case, concerning easements.
Contents
Facts
Mrs Edna Crow, Stone House Farm of North Riding, sued Mr Robin Wood, or Wether Cote Farm, Hawnby, for his sheep straying into her land, alleging cattle trespass. She lived on a Yorkshire moor, long in common ownership where sheep had the right to stray, but then parcels were sold off, each maintaining a right to stray, which Ms Crow did not exercise but Mr Wood did. From 1966 on Ms Crow ceased to keep up a fence. Mr Wood claimed that under an implied grant at common law and Law of Property Act 1925, section 62, she was under a duty to keep up her fences for the benefit of those with grazing rights on the moor.
Judge awarded £205 damages and an injunction, and Mr Wood appealed.
Judgment
Lord Denning MR held that the right to have a fence repaired lay in grant, and so could pass under Law of Property Act 1925, section 62. But also the right to have a fence or wall kept in repair is in the nature of an easement. Since the plaintiff was in breach of her duty to fence she could not complain of cattle trespass.
Edmund Davies LJ stated that the duty to fence arises from proof that the land is accustomed to be fenced.