Weerathunge Dingiri Appuhamy Vs. Wickramaratna Dingiri Banda – 911/97-2012

The case between Weerathunge Dingiri Appuhamy (Plaintiff-Respondent) and Wickramaratna Dingiri Banda (Defendant-Appellant) addressed whether the Plaintiff-Respondent possessed valid title to the disputed property at the time of instituting action in the District Court of Embilipitiya, and whether prescriptive title could be successfully claimed. It was held that, as conceded by Respondent’s counsel and established by the evidence and relevant case law, the Plaintiff-Respondent did not hold title to the corpus at the time of filing the action, and the Trial Judge earlier had found against the Plaintiff-Respondent on the issue of prescriptive title. The judgment reaffirmed the principle that a party seeking a declaration of title must possess such title at the commencement of the action. Thi