Cases - National Provincial Plate Glass Insurance Co Ltd v Prudential Assurance Co

Record details

Name
National Provincial Plate Glass Insurance Co Ltd v Prudential Assurance Co
Date
(1877)
Citation
6 Ch D 757
Keywords
Rights of light
Summary

The plaintiff and defendant occupied adjacent premises. The plaintiff rebuilt its premises. A room on the ground floor of the old building was lit by a dormer window with 3 faces, the light coming from a light well between the plaintiff's and the defendant's premises. During the plaintiff's rebuilding works, the dormer window was replaced by a skylight, partially coextensive with the old window, but of a different shape. Subsequently, the defendant commenced rebuilding of its premises. The plaintiff began proceedings claiming (amongst other things) that light through the skylight was obstructed. The defendant argued that the skylight was not the same aperture and was not in the same plane as the original dormer window and, therefore, that the right of light had been lost.

At the trial, the judge considered that the right was not limited to the original dormer window. He also did not consider that the right would be lost by a change of the plane of the window, whether by putting a window in a parallel plane or by putting in a window at an angle to the original window. The judge held therefore that the right of light was not lost by the change from the dormer window to the skylight.