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7
What is a Curtilage?
The word "drain" under the Metropolis Management
Acts is defined to mean and include any drain of and used
for the drainage of one building only "or premises within
the same curtilage," it also includes drains for draining any
block of buildings by a combined operation under the Order
of a local authority.
The word "sewer" is only defined in the Statute by a
process of exclusion, pipes for draining premises must
apparently be either sewers or drains, and if they are not
drains then they are "sewers." It is hardly necessary to
observe that sewers are under the jurisdiction of local
authorities, drains are private matters.
Golden Horse Yard consists of a group of stables with
living rooms over them, enclosing a yard approached from
Taunton Mews, there is also a way into the yard through
two houses in Linhope Street, the back doors of these
houses opening on to the yard. The yard is entirely
enclosed by the stables and the two houses in Linhope
Street. The drainage of the stables and houses was found
to be defective, and a notice from the Council duly served
upon the owners to remedy the defect. Thereupon the
owners sought to cast the responsibility on the Council,
arguing that the drain in this confessedly private yard was
"a sewer." The owners were informed by the officers of
the Sanitary Department that the yard was "a curtilage,"
and the stables, &c., were all situated in the same curtilage,
and, therefore, the various conduits were private drains and
not sewers.