Manchester Ship Canal Company Limited v United Utilities Water Plc [2014] UKSC 40
Jonathan Karas QC appeared for the successful appellants in Manchester Ship Canal Company Limited v United Utilities Water Plc [2014] UKSC 40 (on appeal from the Court of Appeal, [2013] EWCA Civ 40).
The issue of general public importance was whether a sewerage undertaker was entitled to discharge surface water and treated effluent into a private watercourse, without the consent of the owner of that watercourse. Ordinarily, unless consented to or authorised by statute, that would constitute a trespass. The undertaker’s rights arose under the Water Industry Act 1991, and it was common ground that the 1991 Act conferred no express right of discharge. The question was, therefore, one of necessary implication (as opposed to merely convenient or reasonable implication). If implied, the question was whether the implication was in relation only to already existing pipes in place when the 1991 Act came into force, or whether the right to be implied also permitted the installation of future pipes (as had been decided under the regime which the 1991 Act replaced).
The Supreme Court decided that the terms of the 1991 Act, in particular the terms requiring undertakers to continue operating from existing outlets until discontinued, was inconsistent with there being an immediate tortious right on the part of the owner of the watercourse to prevent the discharge. To that extent, therefore, the 1991 Act overrode the common law of trespass. However, the changes in the legislative language under the 1991 Act (albeit that it was a consolidating statute) meant that the formerly implied right to install new outlets had not survived beyond the coming into force of the 1991 Act.
Janet Bignell has also been involved in the case as part of the Manchester Ship Canal Co Ltd’s team with responsibility for property law issues. These aspects of the case were not the subject of the summary judgment application.
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A link to the press summary of the Supreme Court may be found here
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