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ANCIENT LIGHTS

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 950 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ANCIENT See also:LIGHTS , a phrase in See also:English See also:law for a negative See also:easement (q.v.) consisting in the right to prevent the owner or occupier of an adjoining See also:tenement from See also:building or placing on his own See also:land anything which has the effect of illegally obstructing or obscuring the See also:light of the dominant tenement. At See also:common law a See also:person, who opens a window in his See also:house, has a natural right to receive the flow of light that passes through it. But his See also:neighbour is not debarred thereby from building on his own land even though the effect of his See also:action is to obstruct the flow of light thus obtained. Where, however, a window had been opened for so See also:long a See also:time as to constitute immemorial usage in law, the light became an "ancient light" which the law protected from disturbance. The See also:Prescription See also:Act 1832 created a statutory prescription for light. It provided (s. 3) that "when the See also:access and use of light to and for" (any building) "shall have been actually enjoyed therewith for the full See also:period of 20 years with-out interruption, the right thereto-shall be deemed See also:absolute and indefeasible, any See also:local usage or See also:custom to the contrary notwithstanding, unless it shall appear that the same was enjoyed by some consent or agreement, expressly made or given for that purpose by See also:deed or See also:writing." The See also:statute does not create an absolute or indefeasible right immediately on the expiration of twenty years. Unless and until the dominant owner's claim is broughtinto question (s.4) no absolute or indefeasible See also:title can arise under the act. The dominant owner has only an inchoate right to avail himself under the act of the twenty years' uninterrupted enjoyment, if his claim is brought into question. But in the meantime, however long the enjoyment may have been, his right is just the same, and the origin of his right is just the same as if the act had never been passed. These principles were laid down in 1904 by the House of Lords in the leading See also:case of Colls v. See also:Home S' Colonial Stores Ltd.

(1904 A.C. 179). They overrule an earlier view propounded by See also:

Lord See also:Westbury in 1865 (Tapling v. See also:Jones, 11 H.L.C. 290) that the Prescription Act 1832 had abrogated the common law prescription as to light, that the right to "ancient lights" now depends upon See also:positive enactment alone, and does not require, and ought not to be rested on, any fiction of a "lost See also:grant" (see EASEMENT). There has been much difference of judicial See also:opinion as to what constitutes an actionable interference with "ancient lights." On the one See also:hand, the test has been prescribed that if an See also:angle of 45°—uninterrupted See also:sky light—was See also:left, the easement was not interfered with, and, while this is not a See also:rule of law, it is a See also:good rough working criterion. On the other hand, it was held in effect by the See also:Court of See also:Appeal in the case of Colls v. Home & Colonial Stores Ltd. (1902; , Ch. 302) that to constitute an actionable obstruction of ancient lights it was sufficient if the light was sensibly less than it was before. The House of Lords, however, in the same case (1904 A. C.

179) overruled this view, and held that there must be a substantial privation of light enough to render the occupation of the house or building uncomfortable according to the See also:

ordinary notions of mankind and (in the case of business premises) to prevent the See also:plaintiff from carrying on his business as benefiqially as before. See also Kine v. See also:Jolly (1905; 1 Ch. 48o). There is, in Scots law, no See also:special See also:doctrine as to "ancient lights." The See also:servitude of light in See also:Scotland is simply the See also:Roman servitude non officiendi luminibus See also:vet prospectui (see EASEMENT and ROMAN LAW). The same observation applies to the See also:Code See also:Civil and other See also:European Codes based on it. The doctrine as to ancient lights does not prevail generally in the See also:United States (consult Ruling Cases, under "See also:Air").

End of Article: ANCIENT LIGHTS

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