Cases - Stokoe v Singers

Record details

Name

Stokoe v Singers

Date

(1857)

Citation

8 EL&BL 31

Keywords

Rights of light

Summary

The plaintiffs' predecessors had blocked up windows by putting rubble and plaster over the inside of them, some 20 years before the action. On the outside, iron bars (which had secured the windows) remained in place. Thereafter, the defendant purchased adjoining land and proposed to build on it in a manner that would have interfered with the access of light through the blocked windows. The plaintiffs then asserted their rights of light by reopening the blocked windows. There was a dispute as to whether the windows had been blocked for a temporary purpose or whether this had been done with the intention of permanently altering the condition of the building.

The case was tried by jury. The trial judge directed the jury to find for the plaintiffs unless they believed that the plaintiffs' predecessors had blocked the windows with the intention of abandoning them forever or that the windows had been kept closed so as to lead the defendant to alter his position in the reasonable belief that the rights to light had been permanently abandoned. The jury decided, in favour of the plaintiffs, that the rights of light had not been abandoned. The defendant's application for a retrial on the grounds that the judge had misdirected the jury failed. The appeal court held that the judge's direction to the jury was correct in law.