Cases - Mitchell v Cantrill
Record details
- Name
- Mitchell v Cantrill
- Date
- (1887)
- Citation
- 37 Ch D 56
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Rights of light
- Summary
-
The owner of two adjoining properties granted a lease of one to the plaintiff. The lease granted all rights, etc. 'except rights, if any, restricting the free use of any adjoining land, or the conversion or appropriation at any time hereafter of such land for building or other purposes, obstructive or otherwise'. More than 20 years later, the defendant who was now a lessee of adjoining land from the same owner, started to build on his land in a way that the plaintiff claimed would affect the rights to light which he claimed to have acquired under the Prescription Act. The plaintiff therefore brought proceedings against the defendant claiming an injunction.
The Court of Appeal held that the plaintiff had acquired a right of light under the Prescription Act. It held that the exception in the lease did not prevent the plaintiff from acquiring a right of light under the Prescription Act where he had enjoyed 20 years' uninterrupted light over the defendant's property. The exception simply prevented the grant of a right to light by way of the lease itself.