Private Nuisance, Public Nuisance, and Rylands v Fletcher Review

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the core legal principles of private nuisance, the rule in Rylands v Fletcher, and public nuisance as specified in the SQE1 syllabus.

Private Nuisance

An unlawful interference with a person’s use or enjoyment of land, or some right over, or in connection with it.

Encroachment

A type of interference involving a physical intrusion onto a neighbour’s land, such as overhanging tree branches.

Indirect physical injury

A form of private nuisance where a defendant's actions cause actual physical damage to the neighbour's land or property.

Interference with quiet enjoyment

Also known as loss of amenity, this encompasses interferences with personal comfort such as smells, dust, vibration, and noise.

Unlawful interference

In the context of nuisance, this means an interference that is substantial and unreasonable.

Principle of reasonable user

The control mechanism used by courts to determine if the defendant’s use of their land has unreasonably interfered with the claimant’s use of theirs.

Character of the neighbourhood

A factor used to judge if an interference with personal comfort is unreasonable based on the degree and types of interference expected in that particular locality.

Malice

A factor involving spite or improper motive that can make an otherwise reasonable interference unlawful.

Abnormal sensitivity

A principle where courts look at the impact on a 'normal user' of land, ignoring specialized uses or sensitive property that would not be affected by a standard interference.

Proprietary interest

The legal right required to sue in private nuisance, typically meaning the claimant must have the right to exclusive possession of the land.

Adopting a nuisance

When an occupier makes use of the substance or thing which constitutes a nuisance created by a trespasser or predecessor.

Continuing a nuisance

When an occupier fails to take reasonable steps to end a nuisance once they know or ought reasonably to know of its existence.

Prescription

An effective defence where the defendant has been continuing the specific actionable nuisance against the claimant for at least 20 years.

Statutory authority

A defence where a statute permits the defendant's activity and the resulting nuisance is an inevitable result of doing what the statute authorised.

Coming to the nuisance

An ineffective defence where the defendant argues the claimant moved to the area knowing the nuisance already existed.

Prohibitory injunction

A court order that forbids the defendant from persisting in a particular wrongful act or behavior.

Mandatory injunction

A court order requiring the defendant to take positive action to rectify the consequences of their actions.

Quia timet injunction

An injunction granted in anticipation of the commission of a tort to prevent imminent and certain damage.

Abatement

A 'self-help' remedy involving the removal of the interference by the victim, such as trimming overhanging branches.

The rule in Rylands v Fletcher

A form of strict liability for damage caused by the isolated escape of a dangerous thing brought onto land for a non-natural use.

Non-natural use of land

A requirement for the rule in Rylands v Fletcher, meaning the use of land must be extraordinary or unusual according to the standards of the day.

Public nuisance

A crime consisting of an act or omission that endangers life, health, property, or comfort of the public, or obstructs common rights.

Particular harm

Damage suffered by a claimant in public nuisance that is over and above that suffered by the public at large, allowing for a civil claim.