Property law; easements; right of way; exercising an easement.
Facts: Mr and Ms Deanshaw owned a property (the dominant tenement) on the title of which was registered a right of way over adjoining land (the servient tenement) owned by Marshall. Mr and Ms Deanshaw ran a business on their land and their customers reached their premises by driving and parking their cars on the private road over Marshall's land. Marshall sought an injunction to stop this activity. Marshall also wanted to erect a fence preventing such use of the right of way and the Deanshaws sought an injunction to stop him doing so.
Issue: Were Mr and Ms Deanshaw entitled to allow customers to use the private road on Marshall's land and park their cars along it? Was Marshall entitled to erect a fence?
Decision: Mr and Ms Deanshaw were entitled to allow their customers to use the private road and park cars along it. Marshall was not entitled to erect a fence blocking such access.
Reason: When the right of way was granted, both property owners knew that the dominant tenement would be used for the purpose of running a business. This meant that with the right of way was implied a right to use the private road on Marshall's land for the purposes of loading and unloading vehicles with goods for the business, and for customers to access the business. The owner of the servient tenement could not lawfully interfere with or impede such use of the private road.