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146
itself unfit—Power to make Order—Construction—Manchester Corporation
Waterworks and Improvement Act, 1867 (30 Vict., c. 36) s. 41.
The Manchester Corporation Waterworks and Improvement Act, 1867,
Section 41 provides that " in any case where it is certified to the corporation
" by an inspector of nuisances . .. .that any building or part of a building
" is unfit for human habitation, the corporation may by their order affixed conspi"
cuously on such building or part of the building declare the same is not fit
" for human habitation, and shall not, after a date therein to be specified, be
" inhabited" ; and the Section goes on to impose a penalty on anyone
occupying the house after that date.
Held, on the construction of the Section that it was applicable to the case
of a building that was from any cause whatever unfit for human habitation
and not merely in the case of a building which was so unfit through some
defect in itself.
Where therefore three houses were situated in such a congested area that
they were rendered unfit for human habitation through the lack of a sufficient
access of air, the Court held that the power conferred by the Section could be
properly employed by the corporation.
Kershaw r. Patne.
12 L.G.R, 297.
(Before Channell, Avorv, and Atkin, J.J.)
Sewers —" Drain " or " Sewer Metropolis—Pipe carrying internal
drainage of one house and rainwater from roofs of adjoining houses—Metropolis
Management Act, 1855 (18 & 19 Vict., c. 120) ss. 74, 76, 250.
A pipe (not being a drain for the drainage of a block of houses by combined
operation) which carries off the internal drainage of one house only, but which
also receives and carries off the rainwater from the roofs of the adjoining
houses on either side, is a sewer and not a drain within Section 250 of the
Metropolis Management Act, 1855.
Silles r. Fulham Borough Council (1903), 1 K.B. 829; 1 L.G.R 643; 72
L.J.K.B. 397, followed ; but discussed by Channell, J., in view of the possible
distinction capable of being drawn between the facts in that case and those in
Holland v. Lazarus (1897), 66 L.J.Q.B. 285.
Dicta of the same learned Judge in Heaver v. Fulham Borough Council
(1901), 2 K.B. 383; 2 L.G.R. 672 ; 72 L.J.K.B. 715, referred to.
London County Council v. Hank ins.
12 L.G.R. 313.
(Before Channel], Rowlatt and Atkin, J.J.)
Common Lodging )louse — Keeping without licence - Common room either
for sleeping or eating essential to conviction—Common Lodging Houses Act,
1851 (14 & 15 Vict., c. 28) - Public Health (London) Act, 1894 (54 & 55
Vict., c. 76) s. 94.