''Phipps v Pears''
964
Year 964 ( CMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
Byzantine Empire
* Arab–Byzantine War: Emperor Nikephoros II continues the reconquest of south-eastern Anatoli ...
is an
English land law
English land law is the law of real property in England and Wales. Because of its heavy historical and social significance, land is usually seen as the most important part of English property law. Ownership of land has its roots in the feudal ...
case, concerning
easements
An easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B". An easement is a property ...
. The case concerns walls other than those governed by the
Party Wall Act. Party walls are those which are touch or are shared or agreed to be party walls. The court held the law will not imply or invent a new form of negative easement to prevent a neighbour's wall being pulled down which offers some protection (and no special agreement or covenant is in place).
Facts
The wall of a newly built house, at number 16 Market Street,
Warwick
Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whi ...
, was very close to the adjoining one, number 14, and was not rendered to make it weatherproof nor well-reinforced to make it strong against wind. The house at number 14 was demolished. This left the wall of number 16 exposed. Cracks soon appeared. Number 16's owner claimed damages against his neighbour for repairing the wall. He pled for the court to find a new kind of negative easement (which would, by extension from analogous types of easement) forbid the earlier, neighbour's wall being pulled down.
Judgment
Lord Denning
Alfred Thompson "Tom" Denning, Baron Denning (23 January 1899 – 5 March 1999) was an English lawyer and judge. He was called to the bar of England and Wales in 1923 and became a King's Counsel in 1938. Denning became a judge in 1944 when ...
MR held that there could be no new easement. To be recognised under the
Law of Property Act 1925
The Law of Property Act 1925c 20 is a statute of the United Kingdom Parliament. It forms part of an interrelated programme of legislation introduced by Lord Chancellor Lord Birkenhead between 1922 and 1925. The programme was intended to moderni ...
section 62, the right has to be capable of existing as an easement.
Cases applied
*''
Webb v Bird
Webb most often refers to James Webb Space Telescope which is named after James E. Webb, second Administrator of NASA.
It may also refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Webb Glacier (South Georgia)
* Webb Glacier (Victoria Land)
*Webb Névé, Victoria ...
'' (1863) (see above summary)
Cases followed
*Unnamed decision of Master of Rolls in Ireland regarding removal of trees.
See also
*
English land law
English land law is the law of real property in England and Wales. Because of its heavy historical and social significance, land is usually seen as the most important part of English property law. Ownership of land has its roots in the feudal ...
*
Party Wall Act
Notes
{{reflist, 2
English land case law
Court of Appeal (England and Wales) cases
1964 in case law
1964 in British law