Rajapakse Walimuni Mudiyanselage Biso Menike v Wilwara Mudiyanselage Subadda Wijesuriya – CA NO. 532/97-1997

In the case between Rajapakse Walimuni Mudiyanselage Biso Menike and Wilwara Mudiyanselage Subadda Wijesuriya, the court addressed whether the 3rd and 4th Defendant Respondents had acquired prescriptive title to an ancestral house (“G”/”Mulgedara”) located on co-owned land, and whether the Plaintiffs and the 1st and 2nd Defendants retained rights to shares in that house. It was determined that the house should be awarded entirely to the 3rd and 4th Defendants based on long-term undisturbed possession and improvements, concluding that the Plaintiffs and 1st and 2nd Defendants had lost their proprietary rights. The decision reaffirmed the principle that uninterrupted possession and evidence of improvements can establish prescriptive title in partition actions. The findings relied on the evid