Nuisance

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Nuisance

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Nuisance


DEFINITIONS


Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language, 1828
NU'ISANCE, noun [Latin to annoy. Blackstone writes nusance, and it is desirable that his example may be followed.]
1. That which annoys or gives trouble and vexation; that which is offensive or noxious. A liar is a nusance to society.
2. In law, that which incommodes or annoys; something that produces inconvenience or damage. Nusances are public or private; public, when they annoy citizens in general, as obstructions of the highway; private, when they affect individuals only, as when one man erects a house so near his neighbor's as to throw the water off the roof upon his neighbor's land or house, or to intercept the light that his neighbor before enjoyed.
Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, 1856
NUISANCE, crim. law, torts.

1. This word means literally annoyance; in law, it signifies, according to Blackstone, " anything that worketh hurt, inconvenience, or damage." 3 Comm. 216.

2. Nuisances are either public or common, or private nuisances.

3. 1. A public or common nuisance is such an inconvenience or troublesome offence, as annoys the whole community in general, and not merely some particular person. 1 Hawk. P. C. 197; 4 Bl. Com. 166 7. To constitute a Public nuisance, there must be such 'a number of persons annoyed, that the offence can no longer be considered a private nuisance: this is a fact, generally, to be judged of by the jury. 1 .Burr. 337; 4 Esp. C. 200; 1 Str. 686, 704; 2 Chit. Cr. Law, 607, n. It is difficult to define what degree of annoyance is necessary to constitute a nuisance. In relation to offensive trades, it seems that when such a trade renders the enjoyment of life and property uncomfortable, it is a nuisance; 1 Burr. 333; 4 Rog. Rec. 87; 5 Esp. C. 217; for the neighborhood have a right to pure and fresh air. 2 Car. & P. 485; S. C. 12 E. C. L. R. 226; 6 Rogers' Rec. 61.

4. A thing may be a nuisance in one place, which is not so in another; therefore the situation or locality of the nuisance must be considered. A tallow chandler seeing up his baseness among other tallow chandlers, and increasing the noxious smells of the neighborhood, is not guilty of setting up a nuisance, unless the annoyance is much increased by the new manufactory. Peake's Cas. 91. Such an establishment might be a nuisance in a thickly populated town of merchants and mechanics, where Do such business was carried on.

5. Public nuisances arise in consequence of following particular trades, by which the air is rendered offensive and noxious. Cro. Car. 510; Hawk. B. 1, c. 755 s. 10; 2 Ld. Raym. 1163; 1 Burr. 333; 1 Str. 686. From acts of public indecency; as bathing in a public river, in sight of the neighboring houses; 1 Russ. Cr. 302; 2 Campb. R. 89; Sid. 168; or for acts tending to a breach of the public peace, as for drawing a number of persons into a field for the purpose of pigeon shooting, to the disturbance of the neighborhood; 3 B. & A. 184; S. C. 23 Eng. C. L. R. 52; or keeping a disorderly house; 1 Russ. Cr. 298; or a gaming house; 1 Russ. Cr. 299; Hawk . b. 1, c. 7 5, s. 6; or a bawdy house; Hawk. b. 1, c. 74, s. 1; Bac. Ab. Nuisance, A; 9 Conn. R. 350; or a dangerous animal, known to be such, and suffering him to go at large, as a large bull dog accustomed to bite people; 4 Burn's, Just. 678; or exposing a person having a contagious disease, as the smallpox, in public; 4 M. & S. 73, 272; and the like.

6. A private nuisance is anything done to the hurt or annoyance of the lands, tenements, or hereditaments of another. 3 Bl. Com. 1215; Finch, L. 188.

7. These are such as are injurious to corporeal inheritance's; as, for example, if a man should build his house so as to throw the rain water which fell on it, on my land; F. N. B. 184; or erect his. building, without right, so as to obstruct my ancient lights; 9 Co. 58; keep hogs or other animals so as to incommode his neighor and render the air unwholesome. 9 Co. 58.

8. Private nuisances may also be injurious to incorporeal hereditaments. If, for example, I have a way annexed to my estate, across another man's land, and he obstruct me in the use of it, by plowing it up, or laying logs across it, and the like. F. N. B. 183; 2 Roll. Ab. 140.

9. The remedies for a public nuisance are by indicting the party. Vide, generally, Com. Dig. Action on the case for a nuisance; Bac. Ab. h. t.; Vin. Ab. h. t.; Nels. Ab. h. t.; Selw. N. P. h. t.; 3 Bl. Com. c. 13 Russ. Cr. b. 2, c. 30; 1 0 Mass. R. 72 7 Pick. R. 76; 1 Root's Rep. 129; 1 John. R. 78; 1 S. & R. 219; 3 Yeates' R. 447; 3 Amer. Jurist, 85; 3 Harr. & McH. 441; Rose. Cr. Ev. h. t.; Chit. Cr. L.Index, b. t.; Chit. Pr. Index, b. t., and vol. 1, p. 383; Bouv. Inst. Index, h. t.

Black’s Law Dictionary, 1st Edition, 1891
NUISANCE.

Anything that unlawfully worketh hurt, inconvenience, or damage. 3 IlL Comm. 216.

That class of wrongs that arise from the unreasonable, unwarrantable, or unlawful use by a person of his own property, either real or personal, or from his own improper, indecent, or unlawful personal conduct, working an obstruction of or injury to the right of another or of the public, and producing such material annoyance, inconvenience, discomfort, or hurt that the law will presume a consequent damage. Wood, Nuis § 1.

Anything which Is Injurious to health, or Is Indecent or offensive to the senses, or an obstruction to the free use of property, so as to Interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property, or unlawfully obstructs the free passage or use, in the customary manner, of any navigable lake or river, bay, stream, canal, or basin, or any public park, square, street., or highway, is a nuisance. Civil Code Cal. $ 8479.

Nuisances are either public or private. A public nuisance Is one which damages all persons who come within the sphere of Its operation, though it may vary In its effects on Individuals. A private nuisance is one limited In its injurious effects to one or few individuals. Generally, a public nuisance gives no right of action to any individual, but must be abated by a process instituted In the name of the state. A private nuisance gives a right of action to the person Injured. Code Ga. 1882, § 2997.

A public nuisance Is one which affects at the same time an entire community or neighborhood, or any considerable number of persons, although the extent of the annoyance or damage inflicted upon Individuals may be unequal. Civil Code Cal. § 3480

A private nuisance is anything done to the hurt or annoyance of the lands, tenements, or hereditaments of another. It produces damage to but one or a few persons, and cannot be said to be public. 8 BI. Comm. 216: 80 N.Y. 582.

A mixed nuisance Is one which, while producing injury to the public at large, does some special damage to some individual or class of individuals. Wood, Nuis. §16.
A Compilation of Words and Phrases Judicially Defined By The Supreme Court Of Georgia And The Court Of Appeals, 1910
NUISANCE.

See citations under “Blind Tiger;” “Continuing Nuisance;” “Public Nuisance.”

In general.—”A nuisance is defined to be ‘anything that worketh hurt, inconvenience, or damage, to another; and the fact that the act done may otherwise be lawful does not keep it from being a nuisance. The inconvenience complained of must not be fanciful, or such as would effect only one of fastidious taste, but it must be such as would effect an ordinary reasonable man.’ Civil Code 1895, 3861. It is within the province of the trial judge to amplify and define this definition; but he should do so in language adjusted to the juror's power of comprehension. The Code section purposely avoids specifics: for there is nothing so related to time, place, and circumstances, as the question us to when a particular thing is or is not a nuisance.. Jones v. F. S. Royster Guuno Co., 6 Ga. App. 506, 65 S. E. 366; Phinizy v. City Council of Augusta, 47 Ga. 266.

Same—Fertilizer factory.—A fertilizer factory is not necessarily a nuisance, even if the odors are offensive to persons of refined tastes, as they are not offensive to ordinary people when the proper cure is taken to prevent such odors needlessly escaping. Ruff v. Phillips, 50 Ga. 131.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, 1914
That class of wrongs that arises from the unreasonable, unwarrantable, or unlawful use by a person of his own property, either real or personal, for from his own improper, indecent, or unlawful personal conduct, working an obstruction of or to the right of another, or of the public, and producing such material annoyance, inconvenience, discomfort, or hurt that the law will presume a consequent damage. Wood, Nuisance.

A private nuisance is any thing done to the hurt or annoyance of the lands, tenements, or hereditaments of another. It produces damage to but one or a few persons, and cannot be said to be public; Ely v. Board, 36 N.Y. 297; State v. Paul, 5 R.I. 185; Ad. Eq. 210; 3 Bla. Com. 215; Webb, Poll. Torts 484.
WEX Legal Dictionary
Nuisance
A public nuisance is when a person unreasonably interferes with a right that the general public shares in common.
A private nuisance is when the plaintiff's use and enjoyment of her land is interfered with substantially and unreasonably through a thing or activity.
There are several defenses to this tort including contributory negligence, assumption of risk, coming to the nuisance, or statutory compliance.
The typical remedy for nuisance (either public or private) is damages. Courts may grant injunctive relief if the legal remedy is not adequate.

private nuisance
An activity or thing that interferes with the use of property by an individual (or a few individuals) by being irritating, offensive, or obstructive. Nuisances can include everything from noise and illegal gambling to posting indecent signs and misdirecting water on to other property. Conditions that affect an entire community are a public nuisance. Lawsuits may be brought to abate (remove or reduce) a nuisance.

public nuisance
An activity or thing that affects the health, safety, or morals of a community. It is distinguished from a private nuisance, which harms only a neighbor or a few individuals. For example, a factory that spews out clouds of noxious fumes is a public nuisance, but playing drums at three in the morning is a private nuisance bothering only the immediate neighbors.

attractive nuisance
When their four-year-old child was injured after falling from wooden boards in an unfenced construction site, the parents sued the landowner on the grounds that the wooden boards were an attractive nuisance.

MISCELLANEOUS CITATIONS


Commentaries on the Laws of England in Four Books, vol. 2, Sir William Blackstone, 1753
Blackstone on Nuisances.pdf
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State v. Mobley (1954), 83 S.E.2d 100, 240 N.C. 476.
"An offense amounting to a nuisance is not per se a breach of the peace."
People v. Corporation of Albany, 11 Wend.(N.Y.) 539, 27 Am.Dec. 95
A municipal corporation may be indicted for maintaining a nuisance or neglecting to remove a nuisance which it has the power to remove.
Callanan v. Gilman, 107 N.Y. 360.
The primary purpose of streets is use by the public for travel and transportation, and the general rule is that any obstruction of a street or encroachment thereon which interferes with such use is a public nuisance. But there are exceptions to the general rule born of necessity and justified by public inconvenience. An abutting owner engaged in building may temporarily encroach upon the street by the deposit of building materials. A tradesman may convey goods in the street to or from his adjoining shop. But all such interruptions and obstructions of streets must be justified by necessity.
5 How. 589. See also 11 Metcalf 57; 1 Gray 1, 27
The acknowledged police power of a State extends often to the destruction of property. A nuisance may be abated. Everything prejudicial to the health or morals of a city may be removed.
Buruham vs. Hotchkiss, 14 Conn. 317. Black's 3rd, page 1263.
Public Nuisance
A public nuisance is one which affects an indefinite number of persons, or all the residents of a particular locality, or all people coming within the extent of its range or operation, although the extent of the annoyance or damage inflicted upon individuals may be unequal.
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