Cook-Bodden v Kirkconnell

• Jurisdiction: Cayman Islands
• Judge: Harre, J.
• Judgment Date: 22 October 1991
• Court: Grand Court (Cayman Islands)
• Date: 22 October 1991

(Grand Ct.

Harre, J.

Cook-Bodden

and

Kirkconnell (Moses) and Kirkconnell (Mabry)

LAND LAW

REGISTRATION-rectification-reliance on defective documents

In 1979 the plaintiff became the personal representative of a deceased person whose estate had been unrepresented and unadministered since 1925. He sought rectification of the Land Register with respect to a first registration in 1976 of land allegedly forming part of the estate which now stood in the names of the defendants. He alleged that there had been a mistake in the original adjudication arising from reliance on defective documents.

Held: It was only in the case of fraud or mistake subsequent to an adjudication that the court could grant rectification of the Land Register under s.140 of the Registered Land Law (Revised). It had no power to do so simply because the first registration had relied on an adjudication based on defective documents, which had not been challenged at the time. The court”s unwillingness to order rectification should not be confined to those cases in which the plaintiff knew of the adjudication or could with due diligence have discovered it and failed to present a claim; it extended to a case such as the present one, in which the plaintiff did not have locus standi to claim at the relevant time because he was not then...