Cases - Wheaton v Maple & Co

Record details

Name
Wheaton v Maple & Co
Date
[1893]
Citation
3 Ch. 48, 63
Legislation
Keywords
Rights of light - Prescription Act 1832
Summary

The plaintiff built 2 houses on his land in 1852. The defendants, who leased the adjacent land from the Crown, then constructed new buildings on that land and obstructed the light to the plaintiff's houses. The plaintiff claimed that he had acquired rights of light by common law prescription, lost modern grant and under the Prescription Act. The Court of Appeal quickly disposed of the claim for common law prescription on the basis that enjoyment from time immemorial could not be presumed when it was admitted that the houses had only come into existence in 1852.