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Residents of flats overlooked by the Tate Modern in London are due to find out whether they have won their Supreme Court privacy bid.<\/p>\n
The owners of four flats in the Neo Bankside development on the capital\u2019s South Bank took legal action against the gallery\u2019s board of trustees in a bid to stop \u201chundreds of thousands of visitors\u201d looking into their homes from the Tate\u2019s viewing platform.<\/p>\n
They applied for an injunction requiring the gallery to prevent members of the public observing their flats by \u201ccordoning off\u201d parts of the platform or \u201cerecting screening\u201d, to stop what they said was a \u201crelentless\u201d invasion of their privacy.<\/p>\n
But after losing their case in the High Court and Court of Appeal, the residents took their case to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Following a hearing in December 2021, justices at the UK\u2019s highest court are due to give their decision on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Tom Weekes KC, for the flat residents, previously argued that the Court of Appeal \u201cmisinterpreted\u201d the law.<\/p>\n
He said that under the court\u2019s ruling, the Tate would be allowed to hold barbecues on the platform and \u201cuse the viewing gallery as a rubbish storage area emitting a terrible smell\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could open its viewing gallery 24 hours a day and it could provide every visitor to the viewing gallery with a pair of binoculars.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the flat owners previously said his family are \u201cmore or less constantly watched\u201d from the viewing gallery and feel like they are in a zoo.<\/p>\n
However, Guy Fetherstonhaugh KC, for the Tate, argued there \u201cis no general right not to be overlooked in English law\u201d and that the Court of Appeal\u2019s ruling was correct.<\/p>\n
Mr Fetherstonhaugh later added that the residents still have rights, and that if photographs are taken from the gallery \u201cwith the deliberate intention of garnering private information for publication\u201d, they may be able to claim for misuse of private information.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court justices were asked to decide whether the Court of Appeal reached the wrong decision regarding the law on private nuisance.<\/p>\n
They will also rule whether the court was wrong to conclude that public viewing from the gallery did not amount to a breach of the residents\u2019 rights to respect for their private and family lives.<\/p>\n
The judgment by Lord Reed, Lord Lloyd-Jones, Lord Kitchin, Lord Sales and Lord Leggatt is due to be handed down at 9.45am.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emails Residents of flats overlooked by the Tate Modern in London are due to find out whether they have won their Supreme Court privacy bid. The owners of four flats […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n