Lawal & Anor v Circle 33 Housing Trust
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
- LADY JUSTICE GLOSTER
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Human Rights Law
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Court of Appeal dismissed the appellants’ application to re-open the possession case and upheld the lower court's order granting possession to Circle 33 Housing Trust. The appellants argued that the possession order was disproportionate under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and sought to re-open the appeal on the grounds of real injustice. The Court found that the appellants failed to satisfy the pre-conditions for invoking CPR 52.17 and that there was no basis to reconsider the Article 8 arguments as they had already been addressed and dismissed by Judge Mitchell.
JUDGMENT
THE CHANCELLOR (Sir Terence Etherton)
The appellants, Sikiru Lawal (“Mr Lawal”) and his daughter Joyce Lawal (known as “Jaicee”), wish to challenge (1) the order for possession of their home, 1 Ashbrook Road, London N19 3DF (“the Property”), made by Her Honour Judge May QC on 25 July 2013 in the Central London County Court, and (2) the order of His Honour Judge Mitchell on 24 March 2014 dismissing the application of the appellants to set aside the order for possession and preventing or suspending execution of the warrant for possession of the Property. Their challenge is on the ground that the order for possession and the warrant are disproportionate and so infringe their rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (“the Convention”).
The background facts
Mr. Lawal is currently aged 76 and of Nigerian origin. He came to the UK in 1961 and married in 1964. In 1974 Mr. and Mrs. Lawal were granted a joint tenancy of the Property by the Holloway Tenant Co-operative (“HTC”). The Property is on three floors and comprises four bedrooms, two living rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom with lavatory, and another lavatory. In due course the tenancy became a secure tenancy under the Housing Act 1985 (“the 1985 Act”). In 1998 HTC ceased to be a co-operative and became a registered non-charitable housing association. HTC remained the landlord of the Property until 4 August 2005 when it sold the freehold to the respondent Circle 33 Housing Trust (“Circle 33”).
Mr and Mrs Lawal’s six children were raised in the Property. Between 1976 and about 1981 Mr. Lawal was away from London a good deal for his work with British Rail. From the time of his father’s death in 1981 Mr. Lawal spent most of his time in Nigeria, with the intention of finding and exploiting business opportunities there. Mrs Lawal and the couple’s children continued living in the Property. Mr. Lawal kept in touch with his wife and children by telephone calls each week and making brief visits to them in the UK. Whenever he returned to the UK Mr Lawal lived at the Property.
Mrs Lawal died in 2002. In the years following her death Mr. Lawal spent even less time in the UK. Jaicee spent significant amounts of time at the Property while living elsewhere and then returned to live at the Property in 2010. She and Mr Lawal are the only persons now living there.
Circle 33 served a notice to quit to Mr. Lawal on 25 May 2011, which expired on 26 June 2011. Although Mr. Lawal was occupying th