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96
the nuisance is proved to have existed when the notice was served or
the complaint made, then of the person by whose act, default, or
sufferance the nuisance was caused ; and in case of nuisance caused by
the act or default of the owner of premises, such costs and expenses may
be recovered from any person who is for the time being owner of such
premises.
(2). Such costs and expenses, and any fines incurred in relation
to any such nuisance, may be recovered in a summary manner or in the
County Court or High Court, and the Court shall have power to divide
costs, expenses and fines between persons by whose acts, defaults, or
sufferance a nuisance is caused, as to it may seem just."
This section, it will be seen, enables the sanitary authority
to make and recover a reasonable charge (about three shillings
is, I believe, deemed a reasonable charge) for costs and
expenses incurred in serving the statutory notice, making complaint,
or obtaining a nuisance order, or carrying the order
into effect. The statutory notice is always preceded by the
service of a " written intimation " under section 3 ; and given
the existence of a nuisance which has been brought to the
attention of the person liable to abate it, and no action having
been taken, it is only fair and reasonable that costs should be
borne by the offender for the trouble given in taking subsequent
steps ; supposing that the Justices have not been asked to
inflict a fine, under section 4 (4), already alluded to, for disobedience
to the statutory notice—no liability to costs being
incurred for the service of the written intimation. I therefore
recommended, in the second report, that the power conferred
by the section be systematically exercised. It would not be
oppressive to the individual offender, but it would serve to
show that the offence of allowing a nuisance to occur, or to
continue after notice to abate it, is not a venial one ; and seeing
that the statutory notices served in the course of the year are
numerous (they were 1,210 in 1896, and 1,458 in 1897—the
" intimations " having been 1,966 in 1896, and 1964 in 1897),
a not inconsiderable sum might be recovered and applied in
reduction of the rates.