1918.  [Full Bench]

Present: Bertram C.J., Shaw and De Sampayo J J.

TILLEKERATNE et al. v. BASTIAN et al.

185-D. C. Kalutara, 7,216.

Prescription-Long-continued exclusive possession by one co-owner- Presumption - Lost grant - Dedication of highway - Ouster - Adverse possession.

It is open to the Court, from lapse of time in conjunction with the circumstances of the case, to presume that a possession originally that of a co-owner has since become adverse.

"It is a question of fact, wherever long-continued exclusive possession by one co-owner is proved to have existed, whether it is not just and reasonable in all the circumstances of the case that the parties should be treated as though it had been proved that that separate and exclusive possession had become adverse at some date more than ten years before action brought. "
 
THE facts appear from the judgment.

Bawa, K.C., and De Zoysa, for appellants.-A co-owner cannot prescribe against other co-owners unless he has actually ousted them, or has by some overt act intimated to them that he is no longer possessing on their behalf but is possessing adversely to them.

[Shaw J.-Even if