The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by ACC Loan Management Limited and two bankruptcy receivers against a declaration that Patrick Hamilton was entitled to be registered as beneficial owner of about 26 acres in County Monaghan.
In a judgment delivered on 3 May 2018, Mr Justice Michael Peart said the High Court was correct to find that Hamilton had acquired the disputed lands through adverse possession. The appeal court upheld the declaration made by the High Court on 5 April 2016.
Hamilton’s father, John Hamilton, died intestate in June 1992. The lands formed part of his estate. The judgment says Hamilton continued farming them after his father’s death, using his own cattle and herd number, applying alone for agricultural grants and payments, and exercising sole occupation and control.
The defendants accepted that Hamilton had been in actual occupation for more than 12 years, but argued that he farmed the land with his mother’s knowledge and consent as part of a joint family farming operation. They said that this did not amount to exclusive possession adverse to her title.
The Court of Appeal upheld the trial judge’s assessment that Hamilton possessed the lands exclusively and intended to possess them as his own. It found that his use was permanent rather than temporary or sporadic, and that his mother had taken no step during the relevant 12-year period to interrupt his possession.
The defendants also relied on land transfers by Hamilton’s mother, including a 1994 transfer to Hamilton and his wife. The court found no evidence that this transfer was in satisfaction of Hamilton’s inheritance share or that it interrupted his possession of the disputed lands. Other transfers and a wind-turbine arrangement concerned separate land and were irrelevant to the claim.
The judgment also addressed a 2014 solicitor’s letter referring to a leasehold agreement. The court agreed with the High Court that no lease existed and that Hamilton should not be bound by the erroneous reference in the letter.
The court therefore upheld the declaration that Hamilton was entitled to be registered as owner of the lands in Folio 14587 of the Register of Freeholders, County Monaghan, and dismissed the defendants’ appeal. The judgment noted that the precise limitation-period issue for a personal representative’s claim was not argued in detail; it said the claim would have been barred even on a 12-year period if Hamilton’s possession was adverse from his father’s death.