Mackenzie v. Frank M. Pauli Co.

174 N.W. 161, 207 Mich. 456, 6 A.L.R. 1305, 1919 Mich. LEXIS 431
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 6, 1919
DocketDocket No. 2
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 174 N.W. 161 (Mackenzie v. Frank M. Pauli Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mackenzie v. Frank M. Pauli Co., 174 N.W. 161, 207 Mich. 456, 6 A.L.R. 1305, 1919 Mich. LEXIS 431 (Mich. 1919).

Opinion

Steeke, J.

The above named 12 plaintiffs are separate owners and occupants of lots in the eastern part of the city of Detroit, Michigan, either within the territory bounded by VanDyke, Lafayette, Shipherd and Agnes avenues, in said city, or in the immediate vicinity thereof, and have united in this bill of complaint to obtain an injunction for abatement of a private nuisance they charge defendant has developed and is maintaining in said territory, to their annoyance and damage.

The Frank M. Pauli Co., defendant, is a corporation engaged in general contracting, principally confined to carpenter contracts and woodwork, in connection with which it maintains and operates on lots in the above bounded block fronting on Shipherd avenue, about half way between Agnes and Lafayette, a lumber yard and planing mill, or “interior trim factory” as defendant prefers to name the mill portion of the plant. The relief asked in plaintiffs’ bill and granted by the trial [458]*458court is an injunction perpetually and absolutely restraining defendant from “maintaining its mill and lumber yard on the land where it is situated and from operating its mill and using the property for the purpose of a mill and lumber yard.”

There are no restrictions to use or kind of buildings resting upon defendant’s land where the activities objected to are carried on. The whole block was originally. unrestricted though restrictions are found in a few transfers of recent date. Various portions of the block have been and are yet more or less used for business purposes. Plaintiffs base their claim of right to relief solely upon the proposition that the operation of defendant’s mill, or factory, is to them a nuisance as and where operated and located, near their homes and property in a residential section of the city, which they are entitled to have abated as such.

The specific allegations in plaintiffs’ bill as to objectionable features in defendant’s factory and business as operated and conducted in that locality are, in brief, disturbing and distracting noises from the machinery, loud shouting of or to the workmen and sounding of a heavy gong at certain hours as notice to employees of resumption and discontinuance of work, sawdust and smoke which at times- is emitted from the mill and blown by the wind over that neighborhood, extra fire risk from the nature of the business and manner of conducting it, using for private purposes and obstructing Shipherd avenue and the alley running north and south through said block at the rear of defendant’s property, and the noisy, offensive congregation in and use of said alley by defendant’s employees who often gather there and loudly indulge in profane and foul language close at the rear of the homes of certain of the complaining parties, to their annoyance.

Plaintiffs emphasize the fact that the general lo[459]*459cality in which defendant’s plant is maintained is not a manufacturing or factory district; that the surrounding section of Detroit, covering an area of about three-fourths of a mile east and west by one-half mile north and south, bounded by East Grand Boulevard on the west, Jefferson avenue on the south, Burns avenue on the east, and Kercheval avenue on the north, is in its prevailing characteristics distinctly a large residential district of the city.

This district is bounded and traversed by some 15 north and south streets, or boulevards, and by five running east and west, named Jefferson, Lafayette, Agnes, St. Paul, and Kercheval avenues. It is now a .populous, well built-up' portion of the city, fairly shown to be in its general character a residential district east of'Grand Boulevard and south of Kercheval avenue. There are scattered through it business places on certain of the streets, consisting as a rule of small shops, stores and other lines of business to supply local trade, such as meat markets, groceries, bakeries, drug stores, shoe repair, tailor and bicycle shops, public garages, etc. Kercheval avenue on its north has a double-track car line along it and is concededly a business street, as are certain portions of Jefferson and Lafayette avenues.

The quality and character of neighborhoods and streets varies materially in different portions of that part of Detroit. Burns, Iroquois and Seminole avenues in the so-called “Indian Village” are recognized as amongst the finest and most desirable residential streets in the city, and Seyburn avenue, 70 feet wide, running north and south less than 175 feet west of Shipherd, is described as an attractive, strictly residential street with many fine homes upon it. The lots on its east side extend through to Shipherd, with the residences upon them fronting west on Seyburn. Other parts of the district are of a different quality and less [460]*460attractive, having flats, apartment houses and tenements mixed with private residences and occasional business activities. The small block in question surrounded by Agnes, VanDyke, Lafayette and Shipherd avenues, is of the latter character. According to the plat furnished with this record its size is approximately 640 feet north and south by 350 feet east and west, with an alley running centrally through it north and south 20 feet in width from Agnes street south for about 450 feet, where it crosses an east and west 10-foot alley, and, with a jog to the east, continues south 18 feet in width to Lafayette avenue. North of the east and west alley are, as originally platted, 14 lots 60 feet wide, seven fronting east on VanDyke avenue and seven west on Shipherd with their rears on the 20-foot alley. Some of these lots have in times past been subdivided and parts sold, mostly in 30-foot lots. Agnes avenue on the north is 60 feet wide, VanDyke on the east 66 feet, Lafayette on the south 50 feet, while Shipherd on the west is of a disputed width, which the record leaves uncertain, defendant claiming it to be only 22 feet wide and in effect an alley, while plaintiffs claim a width of 30 feet and the blue-print furnished the court, on which it is marked “Shipherd avenue” with no width given, would indicate, in proportion to the other streets, nearer 40 feet. It is paved with concrete, has a cement sidewalk along it and residences fronting upon it, there being several between Agnes and Lafayette avenue.

Plaintiffs Oostdyk, Mackenzie, Bridge, Dempsey, Trybom, and O’Brien, own lots in the east half of this block fronting on VanDyke and extending back to the alley, those of the three last mentioned being directly across the alley from defendant’s factory which extends about 90 feet along it. Plaintiffs Craige and Mackenzie own land on the east side of VanDyke avenue, the Beckwith Company owns land on the east [461]*461side of Shipherd avenue extending from Lafayette avenue north to within about 60 feet of defendant’s property, while plaintiff Young owns land on the west side of Shipherd. Two belated participants named Nehls and the Parker Estate Co., not named as plaintiffs in the bill but who subscribed to it, own land on the east side of VanDyke avenue. Except that of Young and the Parker estate the holdings of all plaintiffs have residences upon them.

Frank M.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Norton Shores v. Carr
265 N.W.2d 802 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1978)
Buddy v. Department of Natural Resources
229 N.W.2d 865 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1975)
Kurrle v. Walker
224 N.W.2d 99 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1974)
Fortin v. Vitali
167 N.W.2d 355 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1969)
Fredal v. Forster
156 N.W.2d 606 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1967)
Civic Association v. Horowitz
28 N.W.2d 97 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1947)
Rohan v. Detroit Racing Association
22 N.W.2d 433 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1946)
Smith v. Hamm
181 S.W.2d 475 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1944)
Tushbant v. Greenfield's Inc.
14 N.W.2d 520 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1944)
Smith v. City of Ann Arbor
6 N.W.2d 752 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1942)
Northwest Home Owners Ass'n v. City of Detroit
299 N.W. 740 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1941)
Benton v. Kernan
13 A.2d 825 (New Jersey Court of Chancery, 1940)
Sommers v. City of Detroit
278 N.W. 767 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1938)
Waier v. Peerless Oil Co.
251 N.W. 552 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1933)
Roy v. Chevrolet Motor Car Co.
247 N.W. 774 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1933)
Wheat Culvert Co. Inc. v. Jenkins
55 S.W.2d 4 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976), 1932)
Cunningham v. Miller
189 N.W. 531 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1922)
Lansing v. Perry
184 N.W. 473 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1921)
Shimberg v. Risdon Creamery Co.
183 N.W. 780 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1921)
Wolfschlager v. Applebaum
182 N.W. 47 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1921)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
174 N.W. 161, 207 Mich. 456, 6 A.L.R. 1305, 1919 Mich. LEXIS 431, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mackenzie-v-frank-m-pauli-co-mich-1919.