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was absolutely necessary that it should be continued across the Brecknock
Road and connected with a large sewer in the Southcote Road, which had been
constructed at the expense of private individuals, the constructors being entitled
to a contribution towards its cost from parties requiring to make a
connection with it, and this contribution the Saint Pancras builder was determined
not to pay. When the sewage burst up in the roadway the builder put
in a straight pipe to conduct the sewage to the surface, and thence he formed
a rubble drain in the old road-side watercourse throngh which the sewage
made its way until it reached a gully connected with an Islington sewer.
Under the Nuisances Removal Acts the Local Authority are bound to
proceed first against the person by whose act, default or sufferance, the
nuisance arises or continues, or if such person cannot be found or ascertained,
against the owner or occupier of the premises on which the nuisance arises.
The flow of sewage arose without doubt in certain houses in Lupton
Street, which had become occupied and had drains connecting them with the
elongated cesspool, but being within the district of Saint Pancras, the Islington
Vestry could exercise no jurisdiction as against either the owners or the
occupiers of those premises.
This difficulty in repect to jurisdiction precluded also the possibility of
our proceeding against the Saint Pancras Authorities, although upon the construction
of the intended sewer it had become without doubt vested in the
Vestry of Saint Pancras, and their neglect in not enforcing the provision of a
proper outlet, and in allowing houses to be occupied without proper drainage,
might have been alleged as the causes of the nuisance.
In a well-known case, R. v. Cotton, 1 E. & E. 203, it was determined
that the jurisdiction of justices only arises where both the cause and effect of
the nuisance are within the area of the same Local Authority.
The defect was remedied by the 108th section of the "Public Health
Act," 1875, so far as the Sanitary Districts outside the Metropolis are
concerned, and there is no doubt that this restriction will be shortly removed
by the Legislature as regards the Metropolis.
In the meantime, however, we had no alternative but to endeavour to
fix the offence upon the builder, who had constructed the drain, as the person