Alteration v rectification. Joseph Ollech considers when a mistake really is a mistake
Common sense has prevailed once again in the case of Baxter v Mannion [2011] EWCA Civ 120, [2011] All ER (D) 235 (Feb). Mr Baxter has now lost three times in a row in his attempt to be registered as a freehold proprietor based on adverse possession—before the land adjudicator, the High Court, and on appeal to the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal gave permission to appeal because it raised an important question of principle—an example of those rarer types of appeal which are heard not so much because there is a serious prospect of success but because there is some other compelling reason why the appeal should be heard.
For those not already familiar with this case it was about freehold title to a field in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire. Baxter claimed that he had been in adverse possession of the field. If that was all there was to this case it would not be of any particular legal significance.
