Loss of Right of Light – Deemed Abandoned
The defendant denied infringement of the plaintiff’s right of light. An old building had a window in one side. That building was replaced by one with a blank wall. The defendant then erected his own building alongside the new blank wall.
Held: The right to light had been lost. The temporary disuse was a complete abandonment of the right. ‘Every man, prima facie, is entitled to enjoy all the light and air which come to his own land. The enjoyment of lights for twenty years, in a particuler mode, is presumptive evidence of a grant by the owner of the adjoining land of the privilege so to enjoy the light. Here, the former owners of the plaintiff’s premises enjoyed the light for that period, they must therefore be taken to have had a grant from some person capable of making it; and that being so, the right which was once vested in the owners of the plaintiff’s premises, could not be divested out of them, except by a release of the right so granted to them, or by a non user of the right for such a length of time as would warrant the presumption of a release. ‘
[1824] EWHC KB J28, [1824] 107 ER 756
Bailii
England and Wales
Land
Leading Case
Updated: 11 November 2021; Ref: scu.264575
