Public and Private Nuisance

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The law of nuisance and the rule in Rylands v Fletcher • These are specific torts which deal with problems arising either from disturbances which affect your enjoyment of your land, or simply disturb you as a member of the public. • While private nuisance and the associated rule in Rylands v Fletcher are confined to interference with your rights in land, public nuisance has a wider application. • Public nuisance is limited however, to claimants who have experienced special damage above and beyond that suffered by the rest of the public. The various types of nuisance • Private nuisance - Is an ‘unlawful interference with a person’s use or enjoyment of land, or some right over, or in connection with it’. • Public nuisance - in contrast, is both a crime and a tort. It was defined by Romer LJ in Attorney-General v P.Y.A Quarries Ltd (1957) 2 QB 169: ‘any nuisance is “public” which materially affects the reasonable comfort and convenience of life of a class of her Majesty’s subjects. The sphere of the nuisance may be described generally as “the neighbourhood”; but the question whether the local community within that sphere comprises a sufficient number of persons to constitute a class of the public is a question of fact in every case’. • Statutory nuisances are simply nuisances which operate by virtue of particular statutes. E.g Part iii of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, which is primarily concerned with matters of public health. • The rule in Rylands v Fletcher - This is a rule of liability imposed on a person due to an escape of a non-natural substance from the defendant’s land. It will only apply where the loss suffered is reasonably foreseeable and that it is, in reality, an

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