Cases - Staight v Burn

Record details

Name

Staight v Burn

Date

(1869)

Citation

5 Ch. 163

Keywords

Rights of light

Summary

The plaintiffs and defendants owned adjoining premises. The plaintiffs, who had acquired rights to light through windows in the west wall of their property, demolished the building to enlarge it, but left the west wall standing to preserve the windows. The defendants then started to build a blank wall within 3 ft of the plaintiffs' west wall, blocking light to the windows. The plaintiffs applied for an injunction preventing the continued building of the wall and compelling the defendants to pull down what had already been built. The defendants argued that any injury to the plaintiffs' property would be caused, not by their works, but by the alterations which the plaintiffs planned to the rest of their premises.

The Court of Appeal rejected the defendants' argument and concluded that, as the evidence demonstrated that the plaintiffs intended to retain or restore the windows through which they had enjoyed light, nothing that they had done to the property prevented them from enforcing their right of light through those windows. The court ordered an injunction against the defendants, on the basis that the plaintiffs undertook either to retain or restore the original windows.