Cases - Moore v Rawson

Record details

Name

Moore v Rawson

Date

(1824)

Keywords

Easements - Rights of light

Summary

The plaintiff and defendant owned adjoining premises. Some 17 years before the action, the plaintiff's premises had included a weaver's shop with windows overlooking the defendant's land. The shop was pulled down and replaced with a stable which, instead of windows, had a blank wall adjacent to the defendant's premises. About three years before the action, the defendant constructed a building next to the blank stable wall. Thereafter, the plaintiff formed a window in the stable wall in the same place as one of the original windows and claimed that the defendant's building interfered with his right to light through the new window.

The court held that the right to light had been abandoned. Abbott CJ stated that a person who pulled down his house, erected a blank wall in its place and allowed the blank wall to remain for a considerable period of time, would need to show that this apparent abandonment was intended only to be temporary rather than perpetual and that he intended to resume the enjoyment of the right within a reasonable period of time. The plaintiff could not show this. In addition, Abbott CJ considered that by building a blank wall, the dominant owner could have induced another person to buy the adjoining land for building purposes and that it would be unjust if he were then able to prevent that person from building.