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§ 6. Legal Decisions.
WARRANTIES.
In Part V., Food, under the head of § 3 Adulterated Food, will be found
reports of certain eases in regard to milk warranties, namely, Harris r. May
(1883), Elliott v. Pitcher (1901), and Watts r. Stephens (1906), also Shoreditch
Borough Council r. Roberts (2906) a Police Court case.
HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE. 1903.
Dec. 1011.
King's Bench Division.
Metropolitan Industrial Dwellings Co. r. Long.
By-laws—Drains - Water-closets — " Construction of water-closet " — Ventilation
of trap of water-closet —Extension of by- laws to existing buildings
Metropo is Management Act, 1855 (18 and 19 Vict. c. 120), s. 202 —
Public Health (London) Act, 189, (54 and 55 Vict. c. 76), s. 39.
ii. series of by-laws were made by the London County Council under the
provisions of section 202 of the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, giving
power to make by-laws for regulating the dimensions, mode of construction,
itc., of " the pipes, drains, and other means of communicating with sewers, and
the traps and apparatus connected therewith."
No. 17 of these by-laws provided that every person who should "construct
any water closet," of which the soil pipe fulfilled certain conditions,
should cause the trap of the water-closet to be ventilated in a particular
manner.
No. 21 of the by-laws was as follows : " These by-laws shall, so far as practicable,
apply to any person who shall construct or reconstruct any pipe
or drain or other means of communicating with sewers, or any trap or
apparatus connected therewith, so far he shall effect any such works in any
building erected before the confirmation of these by-laws, as if the same
were being constructed in a building newly erected."
The appellants, who were owners of a building erected before the confirmation
of the by-laws, reconstructed and replaced the pans and traps of several waterclosets
in the building, which had been broken in the course of alteration
they were carrying out in the drains connecting the soil pipes of the
closets with the sewer, or in the course of ordinary wear and tear. The
soil pipes of the water-closets were of the character contemplated by
by-law 17.
Held—1. That the by-laws were neither ultra-vires nor unreasonable.
2. That the work done by the appellants was not the construction of
water-closets within by-law 17 ; and that by-law 21 did not impose on a
person who constructed or reconstructed the pan or trap of a water-closet,
but did not construct a water-closet, the obligation of complying with
by-law 17 as to the ventilation of the trap.
Semht.e, that a by-law imposing that obligation in such a case would be
intra vires, and not unreasonable.
(Knight's Local Government Reports, Vol. IT, 1904, p 233