Court case(1865) 11 HLC 642

In 1860 Tipping bought a large estate near St Helens, a manufacturing district, about a mile and a half from the defendants' copper-smelting works. The noxious gases and vapours given off by the works injured the trees, hedges, shrubs and crops on his estate and affected his cattle, diminishing the value of the property. Tipping sued for damages. The defendants argued that the works were carried on in a suitable place in a manufacturing district, that they were there before Tipping bought the estate, and that everyone living there had to submit to the consequences of the trade carried on in the neighbourhood.

The House of Lords upheld the verdict for Tipping. Lord Westbury L.C. distinguished between nuisances producing material injury to property and those producing only sensible personal discomfort. As to the latter, whether a thing is a nuisance depends greatly on the circumstances of the place: a person who lives in a town must put up with the discomfort of the trades carried on around him. But where an occupation causes a material injury to property, its being carried on in a suitable place or in a manufacturing area is no answer; the owner of the property injured is entitled to protection. The damage to Tipping's trees and shrubs was material injury, so the defendants were liable.