Neil Beynon: Enforcement of a servitude right of access – at proof and on appeal
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Neil Beynon
Servitude rights of access disputes seldom come before the higher civil courts. In this article, Terra Firma’s Neil Beynon looks at three cases of note that were appealed to the House of Lords and the Sheriff Appeal Court.
“Disputes relating to servitude rights of access rarely come before the higher civil courts; their subject matter is usually of considerable importance to the parties; complicated facts are often present requiring correct and clearly expressed findings of fact to be applied to the relevant principles of law.
“The three cases I will refer to all have interesting locations. The first is on an estate in the Scottish Borders with a complicated title history. The second relates to heritable properties on the main Island in Shetland lying to the North of Sumburgh Airports. When landing or taking off from there – on a good and clear day (which do occur!) the locus can be identified as the aircraft descends or ascents rapidly.
“The airport began as a group of grass strips in the 1930’s operated by Captain EE Fresson. He pioneered Highland aviation – as the founder of Highland Airways (which evolved into Loganair). The site then became RAF Sumburgh in World War II and is now a civilian airport with occasional military use too.”
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