Last month, these pages pointed to Lord Neuberger’s sounding of the death knell for the long-standing contra proferentem rule as an aid to the interpretation of documents – see The overlooked point in K/S Victoria Street v House of Fraser. This rule has applied so that, in the case of an ambiguity in a document, the document is to be construed against the grantor. Now Lord Justice Patten has waded in. In Alford v Hannaford & Anor [2011] EWCA Civ 1099 (a case relating to the interpretation of an easement) he regards the contra proferentem rule as a “rule of last resort”. In considering whether it has any relevance in the interpretation of an easement against the person who granted it, he said: “[T]here is nothing which is so ambiguous [about the easement] as to require us to apply the rule of last resort even if (which I doubt) it still retains any intellectual respectability.” It is a rule we have been brought up to consider, but one which it seems we should now disregard.
Property PSL