CHANCERY DIVISION
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
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Brookwood Park Limited |
Claimant |
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Gonul Guney Onder Guney Erkin Guney Gulen Musa Ibrahim Faik Ahmet Osam Kuzey Ersen Engin Faik Shabil Khandker Ahmet Khandker |
Defendants |
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Nigel Meares (instructed directly by the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Tenth Defendants)
Hearing dates: 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 25 June 2014
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Crown Copyright ©
Sir William Blackburne:
Introduction
Brookwood Cemetery
The nature of what is claimed
"40 Parts of the cemetery set apart for grant of exclusive rights of burial
The company may set apart such parts of the cemetery as they think for the purpose of granting exclusive rights of burial therein, and they may sell, either in perpetuity or for a limited time, and subject to such conditions as they think fit, the exclusive right of burial in any parts of the cemetery so set apart, or the right of one or more burials therein, and they may sell the right of placing any monument or gravestone in the cemetery, or any tablet or monumental inscription on the walls of any chapel or other building within the cemetery.
41 Plan of parts set apart for grant of exclusive rights, and book of reference thereto, to be kept
The company shall cause a plan of the cemetery to be made upon a scale sufficiently large to show the situation of every burial place in all the parts of the cemetery so set apart, and in which an exclusive right of burial has been granted and all such burial places shall be numbered, and such numbers shall be entered in a book to be kept for that purpose, and such book shall contain the names and descriptions of the several persons to whom the exclusive right of burial in any such place of burial has been granted by the company; and no place of burial, with exclusive right of burial therein, shall be made in the cemetery without the same being marked out in such plan, and a corresponding entry made in the said book, and the said plan and book shall be kept by the clerk of the company.
42 Grant of exclusive right, etc, may be according to form in schedule
The grant of the exclusive right of burial in any part of the cemetery, either in perpetuity or for a limited time, and of the right of one or more burials therein or of placing therein any monument, tablet, or gravestone, may be made in the form in the schedule to this Act annexed, or to the like effect, and where the company are not incorporated it may be executed by the company or any two or more of them.
43 Register of grants to be kept
A register of all such grants shall be kept by the clerk to the company, and within fourteen days after the date of any such grant an entry or memorial of the date thereof and of the parties thereto, and also of the consideration for such grant and also a proper description of the ground described in such grant, so as the situation thereof may be ascertained, shall be made by the said clerk in such register…
44 Rights of burial may be assigned or bequeathed
The exclusive right of burial in any such place of burial shall, whether granted in perpetuity or for a limited time, be considered as the personal estate of the grantee, and may be assigned in his lifetime or bequeathed by his will.
45 Form of assignments
Every such assignment made in the life-time of the assignor shall be by deed duly stamped, in which the consideration shall be duly set forth, and may be in the form in the schedule to this Act annexed, or to the like effect.
46 Assignments to be registered
Every such assignment shall, within six months after the execution thereof, if executed in Great Britain or Ireland, or within six months after the arrival thereof in Great Britain or Ireland, if executed elsewhere, be produced to the clerk of the company, and an entry or memorial of such assignment shall be made in the register by the clerk of the company, in the same manner as that of the original grant; and until such entry or memorial, no right of burial shall be acquired under any such memorial…
48 Burials in places where exclusive right has been granted
No body shall be buried in any place wherein the exclusive right of burial shall have been granted by the company, except with the consent of the owner for the time being of such exclusive right of burial."
How the current dispute arose
The witnesses
The 1723A and 1723a purported deeds of grant
Conclusion
Is there an enforceable agreement for the grant of exclusive burial rights?
Result