The Durability of Title : An Appraisal of Recent Developments in Australian Real Property Law

This article considers three recent Australian judicial developments in real property law that remind us just how frail, or lacking in durability, that title may be. In Payne v Dwyer the Supreme Court of Western Australia dealt with the operation of adverse possession to determine whether a co-owner might adversely possess another co-owner in a situation where the co-ownership of the mineral rights was found in a separate title to the land on which the minerals were found. In Willmott Growers Group Inc v Willmott Forests Ltd (Receivers and Managers Appointed) (in liq), the High Court held that the power of liquidators to disclaim leases would extinguish tenants' proprietary rights; and in Castle Constructions Pty Ltd v Sahab Holdings Pty Ltd, it held that an easement deliberately deleted, even wrongfully, from a Torrens land title register could not be ordered to be reinstated because such a deletion does not constitute an “omission” within the statutory exception to indefeasibility