Development project – rights to light – highhanded conduct – consequences

Ottercroft Limited v Scandia Care Limited & another [2016] EWCA Civ 867 (6 July 2016)


This is another case where the lead judgment was given by Lewsion LJ and it demonstrates the Court of Appeal’s current attitude to high-handed strategies of developers. Following the decision in HXRUK II (CHC) Ltd v Heaney [2010] EWHC 2245 (Ch) developers were at risk of a mandatory injunction rather than simply an award of damages against them, where a right to light has been infringed and so many tended to proceed with caution. The industry took hope for more flexibility following the Supreme Court decision in Coventry v Lawrence (T/A Fen Tigers) [2014] UKSC 13. Here the Court of Appeal let its views be known where a developer acts in a high-handed manner.