Esposito v. New Britain Baseball Club, Inc.

895 A.2d 291, 49 Conn. Supp. 509, 2005 Conn. Super. LEXIS 1133
CourtConnecticut Superior Court
DecidedApril 28, 2005
DocketFile CV-03-0522820S
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 895 A.2d 291 (Esposito v. New Britain Baseball Club, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Esposito v. New Britain Baseball Club, Inc., 895 A.2d 291, 49 Conn. Supp. 509, 2005 Conn. Super. LEXIS 1133 (Colo. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

*510 BERGER, J.

The plaintiffs, Jennifer Esposito, Eileen Collins, Seweryn Czwal, Jim Joseph, Sharon Joseph, Alan Pitts, Donna Pitts, Henry Rodrigue and Sharon Rodrigue-Baretta, Maija Santaniello, Billy Strickland and Katherine Strickland, Audrey Vaskalis and Joseph Volak, 1 live in a New Britain neighborhood that surrounds Willow Brook Park, a municipal recreation facility. The park is home to the high school football stadium and two baseball stadiums, Beehive (old stadium), now used by the high school and other recreational leagues and Veteran’s (new stadium), now leased to the defendant New Britain Baseball Club, Inc., which owns and manages the New Britain Rock Cats (Rock Cats), a professional minor league team affiliated with the Minnesota Twins. The dispute, however, does not concern baseball. Rather, it is over the approximately twelve Friday evening fireworks shows hosted by the Rock Cats and which run from the early spring to the end of August. The city of New Britain as owner and lessor of the new stadium 2 and grantor of the fireworks permit, and Telstar Display Fireworks, Inc. (Telstar), a New Hampshire based corporation, as the supplier and operator of the fireworks shows, are also named as defendants.

The plaintiffs seek both damages and a permanent injunction prohibiting the defendants from commencing and continuing the almost biweekly fireworks shows. This dispute concerns our state’s law of private nuisance and, specifically, the manner in which someone may use their property when that use affects another’s property.

*511 I

FACTS

Fireworks shows are held at the conclusion of each Friday night Rock Cats home game throughout their seventy-one game season. Generally, they start before 10 p.m., last approximately twenty minutes and are coordinated with music chosen by the owner of the Rock Cats. The previous team, the New Britain Red Sox, had for some time held only a Fourth of July fireworks show but, in about 1996, started presenting a few more fireworks shows each year, building up to the ten that were scheduled prior to the Rock Cats’ lease of the new stadium. The number and schedule of shows, including those for the 2005 season, are reviewed and approved each year by the city’s parks and recreation board. Twelve shows were scheduled for 2005, commencing on April 15, 2005.

A

The plaintiffs, 3 mostly married couples or families with children, live to the north (Mill Street and Logan Street) and to the east (South Main Street) of Willow Brook Park, where the stadiums are located. Most have owned their homes for years — long before the Rock Cats existed. South Main Street is mostly commercial, and the Schaller automobile dealership is just south of the South Main Street plaintiffs’ homes. 4 Those plaintiffs are able to hear the dealership’s outdoor paging system. A small construction operation backs up to those properties and emits occasional machine noise. On approximately eight fall Friday evenings, they also hear the sounds of the public address system at the New Britain High School football games, including the sound of a *512 cannon firing when the team scores a touchdown. The high school is located on Mil Street, and those plaintiffs get to experience the occasional short but loud bursts of music as cars travel on the street. These neighborhood disturbances are not the subject of the plaintiffs’ complaint, however. They have joined together in an attempt to end a disturbance that constitutes a real disruption to their lives on Friday nights throughout the spring and summer of each year.

Most of the plaintiffs testified that their normal routine changes on fireworks Fridays. They must close their windows and turn off their air conditioners to keep out noise, smoke and smell. The noise, which some compared to being at a firing range, makes it difficult to carry on conversations. One plaintiff testified that he goes into his basement to escape the noise; others leave their homes altogether. Another plaintiff, who works between 2 a.m. and 7:30 a.m., misses her usual night’s sleep, between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m., on fireworks nights. Although the defendants testified that they have reduced the noise level over the past few years, the plaintiffs experience the noise as being as loud or even louder than ever. Some nights the smoke sits like a heavy cloud over their houses, seeping in through available openings, and sometimes lingering for hours. At times the smoke is so thick that the plaintiffs’ ability to see beyond their property is limited. The smoke makes at least one plaintiffs eyes tear and on occasion she feels nauseated. The smell, which they described as sulfurous and awful, also invades their homes.

The reverberations from the fireworks make some plaintiffs feel that their homes are trembling. They experience the booms as earth shattering and like claps of *513 thunder. 5 Several plaintiffs have emotional reactions to the fireworks, feeling anxious, angry and frustrated. They also reported negative reactions from their family pets. One plaintiff spends fireworks evenings soothing her young daughter, bom in July, 2000, who awakens frightened and crying from the explosions.

Other plaintiffs spend their evenings worried about the safety of their homes and other property. Two plaintiffs described staying outside during the shows to watch for falling embers. More than once, burning embers have landed on their property, requiring them to stamp them out. On one occasion, a plaintiff called the fire department because of burning debris from the fireworks. At least one plaintiff inspects his property for damage each morning after a show. The plaintiffs routinely find small pieces of fireworks debris on their houses and cars and in their yards. Many plaintiffs are further inconvenienced by the closing of their street, which limits their freedom to come and go from their property.

The plaintiffs uniformly expressed their fmstration that they cannot relax and enjoy being in their homes because of this disturbance during the spring and summer. They are angry that they have been forced to tolerate these conditions and fmstrated by the lack of concern shown by the city. 6 The plaintiffs have complained both to city officials and the Rock Cats. They have signed petitions, attended meetings and been involved in a task force with the city and the Rock Cats *514 designed to solve the problem. Many expressed a sense of hopelessness that city officials will ever take action to help them. As one plaintiff expressed it, you “can’t fight city hall.” Another noted that the task force has not met during the present administration and that she has given up complaining because Mayor Timothy Stewart, the former fire marshal, knew about the problem. 7

B

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
895 A.2d 291, 49 Conn. Supp. 509, 2005 Conn. Super. LEXIS 1133, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/esposito-v-new-britain-baseball-club-inc-connsuperct-2005.