Trustees’ claim to ownership of common stone of the district fails (Wynne-Finch v Natural Resources Body for Wales)

Table of contents

• What are the practical implications of this case?
• What was the background?
• What did the court decide?
• Further updates
• Case details

Article summary

Property analysis: The trustees of a family settlement of part of a historic landed estate claimed to own everything below the surface of 40 parcels of rural land in mid-Wales, including common mudstone. Their claim against Natural Resources failed. The court held that the trustees had retained a corporeal estate in unidentified minerals beneath some of the land, but that did not include the common stone of the district (mudstone or sandstone). But even if that was not correct, Natural Resources had acquired title to the mudstone and interbedded sandstone by adverse possession. Written by Harriet Holmes, a barrister practising out of Wilberforce Chambers, who was junior counsel for Natural Resources.