Nuisance - Tort Law
Nuisance, as a tortious concept at law, serves to permit the claimant in such cases to be able to look to sue for the majority of activities that are said to interfere with their land. The case of Jones v. Powell (1629) 123 Eng. Rep. 1155 serves as an excellent illustration because of the fact that, in this case, a brewery made stinking vapors that proceeded to enter a neighbour’s property and damage his papers.
However, in this case, Justice Whitelocke said that, because the water supply was contaminated, “it is better that they (the documents) should be spoiled than that the common wealth stand in need of good liquor” – although such a decision is now no longer the norm, supported by the decision in Read v. Lyons & Co Ltd [1945] KB 216. Nevertheless, the concept of nuisance has been found to deal with all kinds of things that are said to spoil a landowner’s enjoyment of their property. But the boundaries of this line of tort have remained somewhat unclear in view of the ‘public’–‘private’ divide and, perhaps more significantly, the development of the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher (1866) LR 1 Exch 265.
