Hennessy v. Carmony

50 N.J. Eq. 616
CourtNew Jersey Court of Chancery
DecidedOctober 15, 1892
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 50 N.J. Eq. 616 (Hennessy v. Carmony) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Court of Chancery primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hennessy v. Carmony, 50 N.J. Eq. 616 (N.J. Ct. App. 1892).

Opinion

Pitney, V. C.

The object of the bill is to restrain a private nuisance.

The complainant is the owner of a small lot of land, about eighteen feet front and rear by about ninety-six feet deep, in the city of Camden, fronting on the west side of South Eighth street, about midway between Spruce street on the north and Cherry street on the south. Upon this lot is situate a small dwelling-house, composed of a main or front part of brick about fifteen feet front by thirty feet deep, two stories high, leaving a passageway of three feet on the northerly side, and having a wooden extension or kitchen, about ten by thirty-five feet, two stories high, in the rear. The rear of this structure is thirty-one and a half feet from the rear line of the lot. The ground lying to the north and west of this lot is owned by the defendants, or one of them, and is used for a dye-works for coloring cotton and other materials. In the process of dyeing it, of course, becomes neces[617]*617sary to dry those materials, and in order to hasten this process use is made of two machines, called in the evidence “ whizzers,” into which the wet material is placed, and which, by being revolved at great speed, drive out the water by centrifugal force. These machines are driven by two small engines attached to them directly, without intermediate gearing, so that the engines must make the same number of revolutions as do the whizzers, and the more rapid the revolution, the more rapid the process of drying. The principal subject of litigation was as to the effect upon the complainant’s premises of these machines.

[The discussion of the evidence is here omitted.]

The serious and troublesome question in the case is as to whether the vibration established is of such a degree as to entitle the complainant to the aid of this court.

Upon reason and authority I think there in a .clear distinction between that class of nuisances which affect air and light merely, by way of noises and disagreeable gases, and obstruction of light, and those which directly affect the land itself, or structures upon it. Light and air are elements which mankind enjoy in common, and no one person can have an exclusive right in any particular portions of either, and as men are social beings, and by common consent congregate and need fires to make them comfortable and to cook their food, it follows that we cannot expect to be able to breathe air entirely free from contamination, or that our ears shall not be invaded by unwelcome sounds. Thus, my neighbor may breathe upon my land from his, and the smoke from his house fire and the vapor from his kitchen may come on to my land, or he may converse in audible tones while standing near the dividing line, and all without giving me any right to complain. So my neighbor and I may build our houses on the line between our properties, or have a party wall in common, so that we are each liable to hear and be more or less disturbed by the noise of each other’s family, and cannot complain of it. In all these matters of the use of the common element—air—we give and take something of injury and annoyance, and it is not easy to draw the line between .reasonable and unreasonable .use in .such cases, affecting, as they do, mainly the comfort and in a small degree only the [618]*618health of mankind. In attempting to draw this line we must take into consideration the character which has been impressed upon the neighborhood by what may be called the common consent of its inhabitants.

But when we come to deal with what is individual property, in which the owner has an exclusive right, the case is different. While my neighbor may stand by my fence on his own lot and breathe across it over my land, and may permit the smoke and smell of his kitchen to pass over it, and may talk, laugh and sing or cry, so that his conversation and hilarity or grief is heard in> my yard, he has no right to shake my fence ever so little, or to throw sand, earth or water upon my land in ever so small a quantity. To do so is an invasion of property and a trespass, and to continue to do so constitutes a nuisance. And if he may not shake my fence or my house-by force directed immediately against them. I know of no principle by which he may be entitled to do it by indirect means.

I think the distinction between the two classes of injury is clear. At the same time it would seem that it has, in appearance at least, been frequently overlooked by able and careful judges, and the same rules as to the degree of the injury which will justify judicial interference applied to each class.

The distinction between the two classes of injuries was pointed out by Lord Westbury in St. Helen’s Smelting Co. v. Tipping, 11 H. L. Cas. 642 ; S. C., 11 Jur. (N. S.) 785; 116 Eng. Com. L. 1093.

The charge of the judge under review is given in full in the report in the Jurist, and in the addenda to 4 Best & S., printed in 116 Eng. Com. L. 1093, while a mere abstract is given in the report in the queen’s bench (4 Best & S. 608) and in the official report in the-house of lords. (11 H. L. Cas. 642. One of the head notes of the official report (11 H. L. Cas. 642) is this : There is a distinction between an action for a nuisance in respect of an act producing a material injury to property and one brought in respect of an act producing personal discomfort. As to the latter, a person must, in the interest of the public generally, submit to the discomfort of the circumstances of the place and the trades [619]*619carried on around him; as to the former, the same ruling would not apply.”

Lord Westbury, in moving the judgment of affirmance, said t “ In matters of this description it appears to me that it is a very desirable thing to mark the difference between an action brought for a nuisance upon the ground that the'alleged nuisance produced material injury to the property and an action brought for a nuisance on the ground that the thing alleged to be a nuisance is productive of sensible personal discomfort. With regard to the latter, namely, the personal inconvenience and interference with one’s enjoyment, one’s quiet, one’s personal freedom, anything that discomposes or injuriously affects the senses or the nerves, whether that may or may not be denominated a nuisance, must undoubtedly depend greatly on the circumstances of the place where the thing complained of actually occurs. If a man lives in a town, it is necessary that he should subject himself to the consequences of those operations of trade which may be carried on in his immediate locality, which are actually necessary for trade and commerce, and also for the enjoyment of property, and for the benefit of the inhabitants of the town and of the public-at large. If a man lives in a street where there are numerous shops, and a shop is opened next door to him, which is carried on in a fair and reasonable way, he has no ground for complaint because to himself individually there may arise much discomfort from the trade carried on in that shop. But when an occupation is carried on by one person in the neighborhood of another,, and the result of that trade, or occupation, or business, is a material injury to property, then there unquestionably arises a very-different consideration.

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Bluebook (online)
50 N.J. Eq. 616, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hennessy-v-carmony-njch-1892.