Eccleston v O'Keefe [2007] NSWSC 159

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : Eccleston v O'Keefe [2007] NSWSC 159

HEARING DATE(S) : 19, 20 and 23 February 2007

JUDGMENT DATE : 6 March 2007

JURISDICTION : Equity Division

JUDGMENT OF : Windeyer J at 1

DECISION : Four separate questions. Held in favour of the defendants that the Water Management Act 2000 precludes enforcement or operation of the easement. Held in favour of the plaintiffs that an easement for drawing water was created.

CATCHWORDS : EASMENTS– Easement for electricity and water – CONSTRUCTION – Easement to draw water from neighbouring dam – Whether easement permits the maintenance and operation of a pump on the servient tenement – Whether easement may restrict servient tenement from using water in specified conditions – ENFORCEABILITY– Whether Water Management Act 2000 renders easement for water unenforceable – Whether Water Management Act 2000 precludes servient tenement from supplying water to dominant tenement

Conveyancing Act 1919 s88 LEGISLATION CITED : Water Act 1912, s10 Water Management Act 2000 s52, s53, s54, s392 Gale on Easements 17th Ed p22 and 30 ff

Beeston v Wheate [1856] 5 E&B 986 Fitzgerald v Masters (1956) 95 CLR 420; CASES CITED : Miller v Emcer Products Ltd [1956] Ch 304 Perpetual Trustee Company Limited v Westfield Management Limited [2006] NSWCA 337 Re Ellenborough Park [1956] Ch 131 Watson v Phipps (1985) 60 ALJR 1

Peter Bryan Eccleston (First Plaintiff) PARTIES : Lucy Finette Taylor Eccleston (Second Plaintiff) David Daniel O'Keefe (First Defendant) Kathryn Michelle O'Keefe (Second Defendant)