Cases - Marine and General Mutual Life Assurance Society v St James' Real Estate Co Ltd
Record details
- Name
- Marine and General Mutual Life Assurance Society v St James' Real Estate Co Ltd
- Date
- [1991]
- Citation
- 2 EGLR 178
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Rights to light - abandonment - whether the blocking up of windows with masonry but leaving the sills and reveals in place amounted to abandonment - creation under the Prescription Act 1832 - whether the light had been enjoyed for the 20 years before the action was brought - creation by lost modern grant - whether had been created by lost modern grant - whether the right to light had been abandoned by blocking the windows - damages - whether damage should be assessed on the Wrotham Park basis - Prescription Act 1832, s. 3
- Summary
-
This case concerned a threat to rights of light in Park Place, London SW1, by the defendant against the claimant, the owner of the freehold in that property, which was used as offices. A claim to injunction was not pursued at the trial.
The court sought to answer the following questions:
- Were apertures in place for sufficient time to allow an easement of light to have been acquired under section 3 of the Prescription Act 1832?
- Were rights of light to certain apertures (if found to have been acquired) abandoned by the infilling of these apertures by solid and permanent, but removable, infill panels?
- What damages for interference should be awarded?
The court found that the apertures had acquired a right of light, and that there had been no abandonment of the right to certain filled-in apertures. Damages were assessed at £18,000 in lieu of an injunction, and based on a comparable where an agreed sum of £25,000 had been paid by the defendant for the injury caused by the same development to a neighbour of the claimant in Park Place.