Cases - Ray v Fairway Motors (Barnstaple) Ltd

Record details

Name

Ray v Fairway Motors (Barnstaple) Ltd

Date

(1968)

Citation

112 SJ 925

Keywords

Party walls

Summary

The plaintiff and defendant owned adjoining properties separated by a wall owned by the plaintiff. The plaintiff had built a workshop against the wall. The defendant excavated adjacent to the wall and, shortly afterwards, the plaintiff's wall cracked and began to bulge, causing damage to the workshop. The plaintiff claimed damages for interference with the natural right of support, an easement of support and negligence. The Court of Appeal decided that the plaintiff could not succeed in a claim for breach of the natural right of support. He could not show sufficient damage to the land, as opposed to damage to the building, in order to have a claim for breach of the natural right of support. If he could have shown damage to the land, he could have claimed for the consequential damage to the building. (He did, however, succeed in a claim for breach of an easement.)

The natural right of support relates to support by the soil (minerals) and not support by underground water. This means that the natural right of support does not prevent owner A from draining water from the soil, thereby causing damage or subsidence to the adjacent land of owner B.