Judgement Against Mr. A. L.
Anderson: Chinese Law and Right of Way In H. M. Supreme Court on Saturday his Honour Judge Skinner Turner gave judgement in the action brought by the Shanghai branch of the Navy League against Mr. A. L. Anderson.
Mr. R, E. S. Gregson appeared for plaintiffs and Mr. E. L. Hartopp for defendant.
His Honour, in giving judgement, said:—In this case the plaintiffs, as Trustees of the Navy League Shanghai Branch ask for a declaration that they are entitled to a right of way over certain land registered in the name of the defendant and for an injunction restraining him from blocking up the same way. It is obvious from a very cursory glance at the plan that this right igs a very valuable one to the owners of the land for which it is claimed, Now it is the law that rights such as these are governed by the lew loci sitao: i.e. the law of China; and it is not disputed, in fact it is well known, that rights of way are recognized by that law.
I propose first of all to go into the history. of this land which is not in dispute.; In or about 1897 one Wu Tschee Hung, owner of a large piece" of land outside the Settlement and sittiate to the North of the Siccawei Road, determined to divide it up into lots for the purposes of disposal. He had the professional assistance of Mr. Davies, of the firm of Davies Brooke: then I think Davies Thomas. On parcelling it out, title deeds in Mr. Davies' name were obtained through the American Consulate-General and Mr. Davies gave Wu declaration of trust. The lots were then registered in-the American Consulate in the name of Mr. Davies. This is a common practice here, under which land in reality owned by Chinese becomes registered in foreign Consulates. It was obvious that it was no use parcelling out this land unless some access was provided from the various lots to the Siccawei Road: the only road then leading into Shanghai: so a strip of land 20 feet wide was set aside by Wu and Mr. Davies for this purpose. That this is so is clear from the earliest plans put in: those from which the blue tracings were made: Exh. 21, made' as I know now from the original lay out plan of 1897. It is seen that this strip extended through all Wu's lots and up to Lot 859. This strip was covered by two deeds: Nos 809 and 810 and I have the declarations of trust regarding them before me: Exh. 10 and 11. In each the land is described as "20 feet private road" and there, is an express note at the end: "It is distinctly understood that this land can neither be sold nor a mortgage raised upon it'. This underlined in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.