Chaminada Abeykoon vs. H. Caralain Pieris and P. Nicholas Anthony Fernando – SC APPEAL NO.54A/2008-2018

In the case between Chaminda Abeykoon (plaintiff/respondent and petitioner in appeal) and H. Caralain Pieris, subsequently substituted by P. Nicholas Anthony Fernando and others (defendant/appellants/respondents), the Supreme Court addressed whether prescriptive title to the property at No. 34/3E, Ellie House Road, Colombo 15, had been established by the defendant. The key issue concerned whether the initial licensee’s long and uninterrupted possession, absent an “overt act” to convert permissive to adverse possession, sufficed to grant prescriptive title. It was held that the defendant failed to prove the requisite overt act demonstrating the transformation of subordinate possession into adverse possession. The principle reaffirmed was that possession by a licensee does not become adverse