''Delaware v. City of Westminster'' (

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UKHL 55) is an English court ruling on

nuisance Nuisance (from archaic ''nocence'', through Fr. ''noisance'', ''nuisance'', from Lat. ''nocere'', "to hurt") is a common law tort. It means that which causes offence, annoyance, trouble or injury. A nuisance can be either public (also "common") ...

, addressing the question of liability for repairing damage caused by

tree root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...

s. The court upheld a ruling of the

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

, stating that if a defendant knew about a continuing nuisance (in this case, cracking caused by tree roots), and had been given notice and opportunity to deal with it but failed to do so, then a claimant was entitled to receive costs for removing the nuisance themselves. It is a leading case in the Law of Nuisance, Trees and Forestry. ''Delaware'' was the last case in which Lord Cooke of Thorndon sat as a

Lord of Appeal in Ordinary Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, commonly known as Law Lords, were judges appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 to the British House of Lords, as a committee of the House, effectively to exercise the judicial functions of the House of ...

Background

The freehold owners of the Delaware Mansions, a block of flats in Delaware Road, Maida Vale (at ), had received complaints of cracking in the building in 1989. An engineer's inspection that winter concluded that this was due to the roots of a large

London plane tree London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...

outside the building, and recommended it be removed; if it could not be removed, then the foundations would need underpinning. A second report a year later made the same conclusions, with more urgency. Eventually, in October 1991, Westminster Council - the owners of the tree - cut back the roots, and through January–July 1992 Flecksun - the freeholders - carried out a program of structural underpinning to stabilise the building. The total costs to Flecksun came to just over £570,000, and they sued Westminster, as owners of the tree, for compensation. The issue was complicated by the fact that, until June 1990 - just before Westminster was first notified of the damage - the freehold to the estate was owned by the

Church Commissioners The Church Commissioners is a body which administers the property assets of the Church of England. It was established in 1948 and combined the assets of Queen Anne's Bounty, a fund dating from 1704 for the relief of poor clergy, and of the Eccle ...

; the sale did not contain any mention of the right to legal action for nuisances. Westminster contended that if they were liable, then Flecksun could only sue for "fresh" damages caused by the tree ''after'' the transfer; only the Commissioners could sue for the existing damage. The case was initially heard by the Official Referees' Court, where Recorder Derek Wood QC dismissed Flecksun's claim (as well as that of Delaware Holdings, their parent company). Flecksun took the case to the

, where a panel of judges ( Beldam,

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, and Thorpe LLJ) granted the appeal, allowing Flecksun to claim the £570,000 damages along with a further £265,000 in interest. Westminster appealed, sending the case to the House of Lords. The case has been discussed extensively by Jason W. Neyers in his paper "Lord Cooke of Thorndon's Final Appeal."

References

Full text of the judgment

UKHL 55

Background

References

Further reading