The appellants were manufacturers who for fifty years had discharged liquids from their factory into a sewer. The sewer was vested in the local sanitary authority and conveyed the liquids into a stream. The respondents, acting under powers conferred by the West Riding of Yorkshire Rivers Act 1894 (57 and 58 Vict. cap. clxvi) raised … Continue reading Butterworth v West Riding of Yorkshire Rivers Board: HL 26 Nov 1908
The defendants erected water-closets on their premises, the drains from which they connected with two small natural water-courses, which had become sewers, and were, therefore, vested in the plaintiffs, a local board. Through these sewers the sewage from the water-closets flowed by natural gravitation into a larger stream. The defendants were entitled as against the … Continue reading Kirkheaton District Local Board v Ainley, Sons and Co: CA 4 Jul 1892
The Rivers Pollution Prevention Act 1876, sec. 7, provides that every sanitary authority having sewers under their control shall give facilities for carrying into such sewers liquids from factories within their district, ‘provided also that no sanitary authority shall be required to give such facilities as aforesaid where the sewers of such authority are only … Continue reading Brook v Meltham Urban District Council: HL 20 May 1909
Lord Loreburn LC said: ‘But what the appellants say is this: Permit us to prove that these burns are sewers, and if we can prove that they are sewers, surely it cannot be an offence to pour sewage matter into the sewers. My Lords, that is merely asking leave to prove that they have . … Continue reading Airdrie Magistrates v Lanark County Council: 1910
A lower riparian owner sued the Silversprings company for nuisance.
Held: The fact that the plaintiff’s predecessors had acquiesced in pollution for twenty years was no defence, because the plaintiff was not the only person affected by the . .
