Cases - Morgan v Fear

Record details

Name

Morgan v Fear

Date

(1907)

Citation

AC 425

Keywords

Rights of light

Summary

Numbers 16 and 18 were owned by the same freehold owner, the Corporation of Aberystwyth. The plaintiff (Fear) was a lessee of no. 16 and the defendant (Morgan) was the lessee of no. 18. The defendant raised the height of a wall on his premises and interfered with the plaintiff's light. The plaintiff began an action. The House of Lords (confirming a doctrine set out in the earlier cases of Frewen v Philips (1861) and Mitchell v Cantrill (1887)) held that a lessee who had enjoyed access of light for 20 years without interruption over an adjoining property acquired an absolute and indefeasible right to light against the other property and that this right existed against the adjoining lessee and the common landlord, as well as against all future owners of the adjoining property.