Landlord and tenant

Two station kiosks leased to same tenant landlord restricting access to one kiosk while increasing access to other extra profit made at one kiosk to be set off against loss suffered at other in assessing damages for derogation from grantPlatt and others v London Underground Ltd: ChD (Mr Justice Neuberger): 21 February 2001The defendant was the owner of an underground station with two exits, each with a kiosk which it let to the claimants.

The claimants brought an action claiming that they were unable to trade successfully from the kiosk by one exit because the defendant denied passengers leaving the station access to it for a substantial part of the day and that, accordingly, the defendant had acted in derogation from grant.

The defendant contended that, if there had been a derogation from grant, the loss suffered by the claimants at that kiosk was more than compensated for by the additional profit made at the other kiosk from customers who otherwise would have left the station by the closed exit.Catherine Taskis (instructed by Landau Zeffertt Dresden) for the claimants.

Richard Harrison (instructed by the solicitor to London Underground) for the defendant.Held, giving judgment for the claimants, that there had been a derogation from grant; that the fact that the kiosks were held under separate tenancies did not preclude the court from taking the increased profits of the other kiosk into account when assessing damages, particularly given that the contracts under which the claimants respectively lost and gained had been entered into on the same day between the same parties and were part of the same overall transaction; and that, accordingly, the defendant could set off the extra profit made at the other kiosk against any loss of profit suffered.