Wincanton Rural District Council v Parsons: KBD 1905

The defendant had constructed a sewage drain to take discharge from his house. It ran for 250 feet to a catch-pit, and then continued for 70 feet under a highway and was then joined by a drain from another house. For this 70-foot stretch it was also used for carrying the surface water from the highway. This part of the drain (and the catch-pit) had been constructed by the tenant of the neighbouring property to prevent surface water from the highway flowing into his premises. The local authority had never adopted the highway. The plaintiffs complained of a statutory nuisance when the drain broke about six feet beyond the catch-pit, so that sewage collected in the catch-pit. The defendant contended that at this point the drain was a sewer which the plaintiffs were liable to repair themselves.
Held: Even if this was the case he had no defence to the charge, and he could at any time have ended the nuisance by ceasing to discharge his sewage into the pipe leading to the catch-pit. The question whether the stretch of drain beyond the catch-pit was or was not a sewer did not fall directly for decision, but was fully argued, and a decision was made on the point. The plaintiffs adduced two reasons for arguing that the drain was not a sewer, of which only one is relevant in the present context. This was to the effect that a drain which carried the sewage from one house and the rainwater from a highway did not come within the statutory definition of a sewer. The defendant on the other hand argued, like Mr Straker nearly 100 years later, that the pipe was a sewer because it drained the surface of the highway in addition to his building. Kennedy J: ‘I do not think it was a sewer. The pipe in question was not made by the appellants, nor was it adopted by them as a sewer. It was made by private persons for private purposes, to prevent surface water collecting on the highway from running thence onto their premises. And under those circumstances the mere fact that the respondent has for some years discharged the sewage from his house into the pipe cannot convert it into a sewer.’ Ridley J agreed that the pipe was not a sewer.

Kennedy J, Ridley J
[1905] 2 KB 34
England and Wales
Cited by:
CitedCity of Bradford Metropolitan District Council v Yorkshire Water Services Ltd Admn 19-Sep-2001
The Council issued a nuisance notice in respect of sewage being deposited on a property within its area. The statutory nuisance was accepted. The issue was as to whether the sewage system was a public sewer. The judge had found that the original . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Nuisance, Utilities

Updated: 23 December 2021; Ref: scu.181795