Weerapulige Diyonis v. Warusamanage Somasiri – CA 630/97-1997

In Warusamanage Somasiri (Substituted-Plaintiff-Respondent) v. Weerapulige Diyonis (13th Defendant-Appellant) and others, the court addressed whether Lots 1 and 2 of the land known as ‘Aralaga Koratuwa’ should be excluded from partition proceedings due to the continuous and exclusive possession by the 13th Defendant and predecessor. It was held that exclusive and undisputed possession over several decades, coupled with sufficient identification via the survey plan, justified exclusion of Lots 1 and 2 from the corpus for partition. The principle established was that substantive, long-term possession and local boundary customs take precedence over the absence of permanent boundaries in partition actions. Reliance was placed on provisions from the Partition Law and established survey practice