Wigglesworth v Beetson [2024] EWHC 2886 (Ch)

The Claimant sought an order confirming his ownership of land on the ground that the owner had sold it to him, and alternatively that he had adversely possessed the land.   The land had been used as a piggery and the Claimant set up a workshop on the site between limestone quarries in Temple Guiting, Gloucestershire. 

The High Court judge, HHJ Paul Matthews, began his judgment by drawing attention to the process by which a judge makes a decision.  He gave most significance to the burden of proof that rests with the Claimant to establish the facts he or she is asserting.  “The importance of the burden of proof is that, if the person who bears that burden satisfies the court, after considering the material that has been placed before the court, that something happened, then, for the purposes of deciding the case, it did happen. But if that person does not so satisfy the court, then for those purposes it did not happen. The decision is binary. Either something happened, or it did not, and there is no room for maybe.”

Often parties in a legal dispute are so involved in the matter that they cannot see where their case has holes.  They cannot imagine the court taking any different view to that of their own. 

In this case, the Claimant, failed to convince HHJ Mathews of his claim.  The judge described him as “both crusty and taciturn” and noted that his memory for things in his favour was good but “where the answer appeared likely to be against him, that he could not remember”.  

The land owner, Mr Beetson, had died and the case was defended by his widow.   Despite the fact that the significant facts happened 40 years earlier and her husband was the person at the relevant meetings, Mrs Beetson successfully defended the claim in regard to most of the land that the Claimant sought.  The Claimant was only granted a smaller area on which his workshop was erected.  

The case shows that setting off on a claim in which you bear the burden of proof requires careful analysis of the evidence with an objective approach. Mercers Litigation team can provide you with that analysis of the evidence.  Counsel’s advice is also useful before initiating court proceedings so that a Claimant has a realistic view of the likely outcome.  

Article Written by Justine McCool – Solicitor – Litigation department