Whilst away, the defendant Camden London Borough Council carried out building works nearby which included the digging of a trench.
Mrs Lamb returned from America for six weeks to prepare the house for repair work and one of the things she did was to put all of the furniture into storage.
Having finally evicted the squatters and carried out the repair work, Mrs Lamb sued the council, who admitted liability for nuisance.
[1] Following Lord Reid's test in Dorset Yacht Co Ltd v Home Office [1970] AC 1004, the official referee, Judge Edgar Fay, found that the squatters' damage was too remote and was not recoverable.
Lord Denning went on to hold that, while duty of care, causation and foreseeability were all useful devices for limiting liability, ultimately it was a question of policy for the judges to decide.