Court case(1869) LR 4 HL 171

The railway company was authorised by statute to construct and operate a railway. The plaintiffs owned a house near the line, but no part of their land was taken for the railway. When the line was in use, the noise, smoke and vibration caused by the passing trains substantially reduced the value of the house. They claimed compensation for the depreciation of the property under the compensation provisions of the Railways Clauses and Lands Clauses Consolidation Acts 1845, which governed the railway's works.

The House of Lords held that there was no right to compensation. The running of trains was authorised by statute, and the vibration and noise were the necessary and inevitable consequences of the authorised use of the railway, done without negligence; such harm was therefore not actionable as a nuisance. And the statutes gave compensation only for injury caused by the construction of the works, not by the running of trains once the line was built. The owners were left without a remedy.