Kelsen v Imperial Tobacco [1957]

Prima facie, a lease of land includes the air space above, and a lease of single-storey ground floor premises would include the air space above. An invasion of the air space, e.g., by an advertisement sign projecting from an adjoining building, gives rise to an action of trespass. The plaintiff, who was the lessee of a one-storey tobacconist's shop, sought an injunction requiring the defendants to remove from the wall above his shop an advertising sign projecting into the air space above the shop a distance of some eight inches.

He claimed that the defendants, by fixing the sign in that position, had trespassed on his air space and that they threatened to continue to trespass. The plaintiff had been a lessee of his shop under his present lease since 1948, and in 1950 the plaintiff's landlords had written a letter to the defendants to the effect that they would have no objection to…