Public Nuisance Flashcards
Archibolds Definition
“obstruct the public in the exercise or enjoyment of rights common to all Her Majesty’s subjects”
How does public nuisance differ from private nuisance?
Differs on the basis of who is affected by the nuisance. Public- affects a class of people in society
A criminal offence
A nuisance “which materially affects the reasonable comfort and convenience of a class of Her Majesty’s subjects”
R v Ruffell (local community)
Facts: D hosted an “acid house” party with loud music playing all night, the woodlands surrounding were polluted with feces
Held: Local community affected, appeal failed
The fault element
No requirement of intention or recklessness- one of foreseeability/risk
D is liable if they knew/ought to know the risk of the kind of nuisance that occurred (Wagon mound)
Cambridge Water v Eastern Counties Leather
Facts: Spillages of solvents seeped through the floor of D’s shop and they made their way into the borehole, contaminating it, which supplied water to residents.
Held: Not liable as the damage was too remote and wasn’t reasonably foreseeable
R v Goldstein
Facts: D enclosed some salt in an envelope as a joke. Some leaves out and gave the post office and anthrax scare and evacuation of the sorting office
Held: HoL held there was no public nuisance- not proved that D knew the salt would escape.
Making obscene phone calls (R v Johnson and R v Rimmington)
CoA held that making obscene phone calls to a number of women in geographic areas was a public nuisance
But in Rimmington such behaviour won’t amount to a public nuisance as they were separate calls made to separate people rather than a class of people
Sending abusive letters (R v Rimmington)
Sending racially offensive materials to the public was not a public nuisance as individual letters to individual people wasn’t a nuisance as wasn’t a class of people
R v Ong (group with common interest)
Planned to kill the lights at a football match, class of people were the football spectators
Liable for public nuisance
