Court of Appeal decision on registered rights of common
Rights of common (including rights to graze) are subject to compulsory registration under the Commons Registration Acts 1965 and 2006. Rights are registered against “units” of common land. The Acts (and associated statutory instruments) make detailed provision about the registration of rights and the conclusivity of entries on the register. The question arose whether, if a right of common had existed prior to registration as a right which was split across more than one unit of common land, the fact that it was registered in a way which did not, on the face of the register, reveal that it was split over more than one unit, had effect to turn it into a non-split right by virtue of the conclusivity provisions of the statutes. The question was of importance because the true extent of registered grazing rights impacted upon the ability of the owner of the right to claim subsidies for not exercising them.
At first instance, the trial judge held that the failure to record on the face of the register that the right was split did not mean that it became a non-split right by virtue of the conclusivity provisions in the Acts. The Court of Appeal heard an appeal against that conclusion, and confirmed the decision of the trial judge. It was possible to go behind the entry in the register to show that the registered right was in fact a split right.
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