Lawyers for St Martins Property, the UK-based investment arm of Kuwait’s soverign wealth fund, is taking the owner of 50 Fenchurch Street to the High Court over the alleged obstruction of light to Foster + Partners’ Willis Towers Watson building at 51 Lime Street. The legal suit states that the loss of daylight to 51 Lime Street from the 36-storey Eric Parry scheme, currently under construction, amounts to ‘substantial interference with the ordinary enjoyment of the Willis Building and constitute a nuisance’. Although the legal case was filed last November, it had not been reported on until this week. Lawyers acting for St Martins have also filed a case this month against another neighbouring development at 130 Fenchurch Street, designed by WilkinsonEyre. Details of the case against 130 Fenchurch Street are currently unavailable.Advertisement St Martins is seeking an injunction to prevent 50 Fenchurch Street from being completed and to ‘reduce or alter the massing of its development so as to avoid causing such a nuisance or unlawful infringement’. An alternative would be unspecified damages from Hygie, developer AXA IM’s social purpose vehicle, which owns 50 Fenchurch Street. Foster + Partners completed the Willis Towers Watson building in 2007 on the site of a 1950s building, the Underwriting Room, which lawyers for St Martins said ‘enjoyed [light] through the apertures of the southern elevation’ over 50 Fenchurch Street ‘without interruption’. Work has begun on the piling and excavation for the 150m-tall Eric Parry-designed neighbour with construction of the main structure scheduled to start this summer. Eric Parry’s 36-storey 50 Fenchurch Street scheme was given permission in 2020 on behalf of the Clothworkers’ Company despite controversy over its blocking of light to occupiers of 120 Fenchurch Street, a scheme also designed by the practice. WilkinsonEyre’s 130 Fenchurch Street scheme is still at consultation after a full unveiling of the proposals in December and a planning application is expected this year. A spokesperson for 130 Fenchurch Street told the AJ they were unable to comment on the separate legal action.Advertisement If complete, the 50 and 130 Fenchurch Street schemes will be among the latest towers to join the City of London’s growing cluster of skyscrapers. Others in the pipeline include RSHP’s 99 Bishopsgate scheme, Eric Parry’s super-tall 1 Undershaft tower, a Can of Ham neighbour designed by Fletcher Priest, and a Woods Bagot-designed tower at 85 Gracechurch Street. A spokesperson for AXA IM Alts said: ‘We believe these claims are without merit but as a policy we do not comment on potential or ongoing legal proceedings so have nothing further to say.’ WilkinsonEyre and Eric Parry have been contacted for comment. Foster + Partners declined to comment. Site view