The Court declared that the plaintiff's predecessor in title acquired fee simple title to a 3.352 sqm parcel of old system land in Balmain by adverse possession after 20 years' continuous occupation from 1965 to 1985, extinguishing the documentary owner's title under s 34 of the Real Property Limitation Act 1833 (Imp). The Court ordered the Registrar-General to create a Torrens title folio recording the plaintiff as proprietor in fee simple. The case illustrates the process of tracing documentary ownership of old system land through a chain of executors under s 13 of the Imperial Acts Application Act 1969 (NSW) and s 44A of the Probate and Administration Act 1898 (NSW), and the application of the rule in Shelley's Case to a pre-1920 will.
The full text is available to signed-in members.