Von Moltke v. Costa Areosa (Pty.) Ltd.

Frederick Baldur Harrer Braun von Moltke (the applicant), a resident of Llandudno, Cape Peninsula, had chosen to reside in Llandudno because he disliked crowded city life and wished to live in a peaceful and quiet area close to nature. His house is approximately one mile from Sandy Bay. On becoming aware that Sandy bay was about to be developed as a township and that the respondent had submitted an application to the Divisional Council of the Cape, the applicant filed a written objection with the Secretary of the Provincial Administration. He also organized a petition with 4000 signatures and a protest meeting. He complained that bulldozing operations, which had already commenced, constituted nuisance to his enjoyment of his property and irreparable damages to the indigenous vegetation and sand dunes. He also complained of public nuisance and sought an injunction to restrain the respondent from carrying on further operations and an order for restoration of his property to its previous condition. The respondent challenged the applicants’ locus standi to institute proceedings. The court held that whether a party seeking an interdiction restraining a nuisance proceeds by way of summons or on motion he had to show that he was suffering or would suffer some injury, prejudice or damage or invasion of a right peculiar to himself and over an above that sustained by the members of the public in general. It was not enough to allege that a nuisance was being committed. He had to go further and at the very least allege facts from which it could be inferred that he had a special reason for coming to the court. It followed that the applicant was entitled to relief neither for the alleged public nuisance nor for the alleged contraventions of the Township Ordinance and the Town Planning Regulations. The application was dismissed with costs.