Cases - Colls v Home and Colonial Stores

Record details

Name

Colls v Home and Colonial Stores

Date

[1904]

Citation

AC 179

Legislation

Prescription Act 1832

Keywords

Easements - rights of light - actionable interference - extent of right to light - ordinary notions of mankind - whether sufficient light is left according to the 'ordinary notions of mankind' for comfortable use and occupation of the building - whether entitled to all the light enjoyed in the prescriptive period - Prescription Act 1832, s. 3

Summary

This case was the first to establish the guiding principle of law that forms the basis of rights of light claims and is the authority for a number of propositions.

The House of Lords held (amongst other things) that in deciding whether there had been an actionable interference with a right to light, the relevant question is not how much light has been taken away, but rather how much light has been left and is that enough for the comfortable use and enjoyment of the property according to the 'ordinary notions of mankind' (i.e. people's ordinary requirements).