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Court of Appeal Grand CaymanTuesday 25 March 2014
The National Roads Authority acting by The Director of Lands and Security v (1) Abshire Bodden (2) Gene Thompson and Alfonso Wright
The National Roads Authority acting by The Director of Lands and Security -v- (1) Abshire Bodden (2) Gene Thompson and Alfonso Wright
CoA Grand Cayman – 25 Mar 2014
This case was an appeal to the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands from a decision of a tribunal which had assessed the compensation payable for the compulsory acquisition of land needed for a new road. The main issue before the tribunal was whether the land in question had acquired an easement of way by prescription which would have enabled the residential development of that land had it not been acquired for the purposes of the new road. The tribunal held that an easement had been acquired by long user and valued the land as suitable for residential development accordingly.
The appeal to the Grand Court was on a point of law only. This had been established in an earlier decision of the Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands in the same case. The Grand Court rejected all of the grounds of appeal save one which was that the tribunal had failed to give adequate reasons for its finding of an easement (for example the tribunal had failed to consider the law on the question of whether an easement could be used to serve residential development when the long user has been for the purposes of fruit picking). The case was remitted to the tribunal for a further hearing.
