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Nuisance (Public, Private and Rylands)
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Detailed notes on the law relating to nuisance. Contains key principles and cases. These notes helped me achieve a distinction (74).
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By: aahrz • 6 year ago
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THE LAW OF TORTPRIVATE NUISANCE, PU BLIC NUISANCE AND RY LANDS
DEFINITIONS
Private Nuisance Bamford v Turnley Strict liability.
‘the continuous activity or state of affairs CLAIMANT MUST PROVE
causing a substantial and unreasonable
interference with a plaintiff’s land or his use Continuous activity
or enjoyment of that land.’ Unreasonable interference with…
a) Plaintiff’s land or
b) Use/enjoyment of land
Public Nuisance AG v PYA Quarries CLAIMANT MUST PROVE
‘acts or omissions that materially affect Act/omission
the…comfort and convenience…of a class of Materially affects…
people.’ Comfort and convenience
Class of people
Rylands v Fletcher Rylands v Fletcher Strict liability.
“We think that the true rule of law is that the CLAIMANT MUST PROVE:
person who for his own purpose brings onto
his land and collects and keeps there That the D brought onto land
anything likely to do mischief if it escapes, accumulated there for his own purposes
must keep it at his peril, and if he does not Anything likely to do mischief if it
do so, is prima facie answerable for all the escaped
damage that is the natural consequence of It did escape
the escape.” Use of D’s land was non-natural
Caused foreseeable damage
Blackburn, J
, Private Nuisance
“..any continuous activity or state of affairs causing a substantial and unreasonable interference with a plaintiff’s land or his use and
enjoyment of that land.” (Bamford v Turnley)
Identify parties. Then C must prove: 1. Activity is ongoing 2. Indirect interference 3. Recognised damage 4. Unlawful (unreasonable) interference 5. Defences
Private nuisance = strict liability and is not actionable per se (must prove loss)
PARTIES
Who can sue?
Claimant must have legal/proprietary interest in the affected land. Licensee/child/spouse is not sufficient. (Malone v Laskey; Hunter v
Canary Wharf; McKenna v British Aluminium; Dobson v Thames Water Utilities)
Who can be sued?
Defendant can be:
1. Most commonly the creator of the nuisance (Thomas v NUM)
2. The occupier of the land where they are authorising the nuisance (Leakey v National Trust)
Occupiers will not usually be held liable for a nuisance created by a third party (independent contractors, trespassers, predecessors,
natural occurring incidents – you would have to sue these parties independently), but there are EXCEPTIONS:
Independent contractors: occupiers are not normally liable unless in rare cases where the occupier has asked the independent
contractors to conduct tasks that cause a reasonably foreseeable or inevitable nuisance. (Matania v National Provincial Bank).
Trespassers: occupiers will not usually be held liable for a nuisance created by trespassers (Page Motors v Epsom) unless they
continued or adopted the nuisance (Sedleigh-Denfield v O’Callaghan). Occupiers can escape liability if they take reasonable steps to
abate the nuisance.
Predecessors: occupier not liable for a nuisance that was created by a predecessor in title and existed before the occupier obtained
the land unless they continued or adopted the nuisance.
Naturally occurring nuisances: occupiers are not usually held liable unless they knew or ought to have known about the danger
and failed to take reasonable steps to abate the nuisance (Goldman v Hargrave). However, a duty to abate depends on the means of
the occupier – not required to act if they are not financially able to. (Holbeck Hall Hotel v Scarborough BC)
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