Dear Colleagues:

I was wondering if any of you had given any thought to whether Southwark London Borough Council v. Mills [1999] 3 WLR 939 (HL) was rightly decided on the nuisance issue. The court argued that merely living in a dwelling could never amount to a nuisance since it is a reasonable use. My gut reaction is that the better answer is that both tenants are committing a nuisance vis-à-vis each other since the proper question is not whether the defendant’s use is reasonable but whether the interference materially and unreasonably interferes with the use and enjoyment of the claimant.  Given the facts described, it appears that the interference was unreasonable (even allowing for the community standard (which wasn’t really averted to)).

Any thoughts?

-- 
Jason Neyers
Associate Professor of Law
Faculty of Law
University of Western Ontario
N6A 3K7
(519) 661-2111 x. 88435