Key legal question
Whether the cantonal court made arbitrary factual findings about an agreement to change the purpose of the jointly owned parcel to garden use.
Extracted holding
The finding was arbitrary; the statements in the record only showed a provisional tolerance of garden use, not a binding agreement to change the parcel's purpose.
Extracted reasoning
The Federal Court held that the appellant's statement that she did not want development 'at the moment' and the respondent's reference to a 'gentleman's agreement' supported only a prekarious, temporary tolerance. There was no clear indication of a mutual intention to permanently alter the purpose of the parcel.