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must come in for the purpose of this. Further than that, I cannot help thinking
that there is a good deal in the view? that, although the Legislature might have
imposed a limit to the value in every case, either lodgings let at a certain
rent or houses occupied by members of more than one family or a house
that is to say a separate tenement let at a certain rent; yet, still, when you find
them applicable to a given subject matter, and not to a subject matter
limited by some pecuniary standard. I think when you look at the facts of
this case this building is a collection of houses for the purpose of this Section.
There is no front door.* There is a common passage and common staircases.
On those common passages and common staircases open a number of front doors
which may be locked, and are separately occupied by the tenants of those.
If any one of those is let in lodgings, or if a room is occupied by members of
more than one family then the particular landlord of that particular house
would come within the terms of the Section. In my opinion it is going too
far to say that the whole structure of bricks and mortar is a house, or part of a
house let in lodgings or occupied by members of more than one family, simply
because there are separate tenements and separate occupations under the circumstances
stated in this case. I think, therefore, the judgment of the Magistrate
was quite right.,,
The other Justices concurred, and the appeal of the Yestry—now merger! in
the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark—was dismissed with costs.
Hedley v. Webb.
9Combined Drainage of Semi-detached Houses.
The word "drain" means any drain of and used for the drainage of one
building only, or premises within the same curtilage, and made merely for the
purpose of communicating therefrom with a cesspool or other like receptacle
for drainage, or with a sewer into which the drainage of two or more buildings
or premises occupied by different persons is conveyed. "Sewer" includes
sewers and drains of every description, except drains to which the word
" drain " interpreted as aforesaid applies.
In this case it was decided in the Chancery Division by Mr. Justice CozensHardy
on 26th March, 1901, that the term "one building" was not equivalent
to the term "one house," that a pair of semi-detached houses only constituted
one building, and that a pipe constructed to carry away the drainage of two
semi-detached houses to the main sewer is a drain used for the drainage of one
building only and does not rest with the Local Authority. [1901, W.N., 76 ;
17 T..L.R., 393.]
* There is a door or gate in the fore Court with a Norfolk latch