An easement is a right to cross or otherwise use someone
else's land for a specified purpose. The Court of Appeal
considered abandonment of an easement in the recent case of
Dwyer v Westminster City Council [2014] EWCA Civ 153.
Background
In 1922 land behind London's Edgware Road was sold to a
company. Access to the site was via a passage way from the main
road, and was the subject of an express grant of rights for
pedestrians and vehicles.
The company closed in the 1960s, and the Council acquired the
site for residential property development. During and following
this redevelopment of the site, the access way had fallen out of
use, and a trader, Mr Dwyer, working out of the adjacent Church
Street Market blocked the access at either ends and began using the
space as a storage depot for his business goods. The non-use of the
access route continued for 40 years, and in 2007, having used the
site since the sixties, Dwyer applied for and obtained title to
that land
