Sydney presented a CPD seminar for the Law Society of NSW on 19 March 2024 as part of its Property law: One day intensive program. Sydney’s seminar, titled Litigating with Abandon: the obstacles to obtaining a declaration that an easement has been abandoned, addressed the following topics:
- Section 89 of the Conveyancing Act giving the Court power to declare easement abandoned or to modify it, and the related s 49 Real Property Act conferring analogous powers on the Registrar-General
- When one pathway should be used over the other, and the rights to appeal from such decisions
- General judicial attitudes to claims that an easement has been abandoned
- Understanding the presumption that an easement is abandoned if it has seen no use for 20 years, and the type of conduct that constitutes “use”
- A deep dive into recent cases by reference to sketches: Castle v Achdjian [2022] NSWSC; Sheppard v Smith [2021] NSWSC and on appeal NSWCA [2022].
- The effect of Gan v Xie [2023] NSWCA as to “gist” evidence versus “direct speech” evidence in these types of matters