Cases - Weston v Arnold

Record details

Name

Weston v Arnold

Date

(1873)

Citation

8 Ch App 1084

Legislation

Bristol improvement Acts 1840 and 1847

Keywords

Party walls - surveying party walls - Bristol improvement Acts 1840 and 1847

Summary

The plaintiff and the defendant in this case owned properties that were separated for the first storey by a wall. There was no dispute that, for the first storey, the wall was a party wall. Above that height, the plaintiff's wall continued and had windows in respect of which the plaintiff had acquired rights of light by prescription. The defendant argued, under the Bristol Improvement Acts 1840 and 1847, that the whole wall was a party wall, so that the defendant was entitled to erect a building that obstructed the plaintiff's light. The court held that the first storey of the wall was a party wall. However, the wall above that level was not a party wall, but simply the external wall of the plaintiff's property.