Murray v. Buckner

15 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 424
CourtOhio Superior Court, Cincinnati
DecidedDecember 15, 1913
StatusPublished

This text of 15 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 424 (Murray v. Buckner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Superior Court, Cincinnati primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Murray v. Buckner, 15 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 424 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1913).

Opinion

Sutphin, J.

This is an action for damages to real property and for loss of nse of property. Plaintiff is the owner of a lot and brick building at No. 534 Clinton street, Cincinnati, and the defendant is the owner of property immediately adjoining on the west upon which is a brick building and in the rear of which is a closet built over a vault in close proximity to the dividing line between the two properties. The petition charged that the closet and vault were used by tenants who occupied the defendant’s building, and that for a period of four years past de[425]*425iend'ant maintained this vault in such a defective condition that water therefrom had been allowed to escape and flow over onto the plaintiff’s property, and also to percolate through the soil unto the plaintiff’s property so as to cause a settling of the soil with the consequent cracking of the foundation and walls of the rear part of plaintiff’s house; that this water had even seeped through the foundation walls of plaintiff’s building in such quantity as to cover the floor of the cellar to a depth varying from two to twelve inches, thereby greatly inconveniencing the plaintiff in the use of same and furthermore by reason of the foul character of the water greatly interfering with her use of the rear end of her premises.

The original petition in the case was filed November 13, 1912, and an amended petition later on in May, 1913. To this amended petition the defendant filed an answer which consisted of a general denial.

At the opening of the trial counsel for plaintiff and defendant entered into a-stipulation by the terms of which it was agreed that the defendant’s property was owned by William T. Buckner in his lifetime and up until his death, which occurred April 30, 1912; that William T. Buckner by will devised'the property to Elizabeth H. Buckner, the present owner. It was further agreed that the claim sued on was confined to damages suffered during the lifetime of William T. Buckner.

The plaintiff introduced evidence substantially supporting the allegations contained in the petition, and at the conclusion of the plaintiff’s case defendant made a motion to arrest the case from the jury and to direct a verdict for the defendant, which Avas granted and a verdict for defendant was returned.

In support of this motion counsel for defendant contended that this was- an action for damage for a nuisance, and as the acts and resulting damage complained of had occurred during the lifetime of William T. Buckner, the owner, his death caused an abatement of the action by virtue of Section 11397 of the General Code. Counsel for plaintiff, on the other hand, contended that this was an action for damages to real property for trespass and as such survived the death of the owner by virtue pf Section 11235 of the General Code:

[426]*426The first question therefore is whether this is an action for damages for a trespass or one for damages for a nuisance. At common law an action for trespass was very clearly distinguished from an action "on the ease” for nuisance. Blacbstone has said that trespass signifies no more than an entry on another man’s ground without.a lawful authority and doing some damage however inconsiderable, to his real property. See Vol. 2 Cooley’s Blackstone, 2d Ed., 209. This was sometimes described as trespass quare clausum fregit or trespass vi et armis. The essential idea seems to have been the breaking of a close by force, and so great regard did the law have for a man’s premises that it presumed damage would accrue from the breaking into or penetrating such close, even if it was no more than the trampling of the herbage therein. On the other hand, an action, "on the case” was where the injury resulting from the action was not caused by direct force but was consequential. As was stated in the case of Hicks v. Drew, 117 Cal., 305:

"One of the best tests by which to distinguish trespass is found in the answer to the question: When was the damage done? If the damage does not come directly from the act, but is simply an after result from the act, it is essential consequental, and no trespass.”

In this connection Joyce in his work on Nuisance, Section 17, says:

"The distinction between a nuisance and a trespass is that in the former the injury is consequential and results generally from some act committed beyond the limits of the property affected, while in the latter the infringement of the property rights is direct and the injury immediate. The act in the former is wrongful because of the consequent results. It consists in such use of one’s own property as to injure some right of another.”

This distinction has been recognized as early as 1846 by the Supreme Court of Ohio in Harrington v. Heath, 15 Ohio, ,483, which involved the jurisdiction of a justice of the peace in an action for damages resulting from the erection of a dam across a certain water course causing it to flow back upon the land of plaintiff. If this was an action for trespass the justice of peace [427]*427had jurisdiction, whereas if it was an action on the case for nuisance, the justice of peace was without jurisdiction. The court held that such state of facts gave rise to an action for nuisance and not for trespass, and in that connection said:

“The words trespass and cáse both, in their ordinary and legal sense, have a> different meaning; the word trespass applying to injuries resulting from direct force, and case to such as are eonscequential.”

This principle is further illustrated in the case of Williams v. Coal Company, 37 O. S., 583. The plaintiff and defendant were owners of adjoining lands, both engaged in the business of mining coal. The defendant, while excavating coal on Lis' lot mined over onto the plaintiff’s lot some thirty-five or forty feet, and then abandoned the mine. Subsequently the plaintiff, in ignorance of the over-working of the defendant, started to mine his own land and struck the working which had been done on his land by the defendant, and the water from the abandoned workings of the defendant flooded the plaintiff’s mine, thereby causing him serious damage, and some five years later he brought suit for damages. The plaintiff contended that it was an action for damages for a nuisance, while tl^e defendant claimed that it was an action for trespass and that as it had not been brought within the statutory period of four years it was barred. The Supreme Court sustained the contention of the defendant, and held that it was an action for trespass on the ground that the defendant had made an excavation and aperture in the plaintiff’s land. In other words, the damages were directly caused by an overt entry on plaintiff’s iand. The court, on page 588, expressly distinguishes it from the case where structures have been erected and maintained upon the lands of defendant to the nuisance or, in jury of plaintiff’s premises.

The structure in this case was a closet or vault (commonly known as a privy) located entirely upon defendant’s land. The complaint is not addressed to the structure itself, but to the consequences resulting from the condition which defendant permitted to exist with reference thereto. The law is quite clearly [428]*428established that if such a structure is permitted to remain in such condition as to annoy others or^damage their property, it becomes a nuisance per se for which damages may be recovered.

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Related

Davis v. . Niagara Falls Tower Co.
64 N.E. 4 (New York Court of Appeals, 1902)
Finkelstein v. Huner
77 A.D. 424 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1902)
Hicks v. Drew
49 P. 189 (California Supreme Court, 1897)
Iliff v. School Directors
45 Ill. App. 419 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1892)

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Bluebook (online)
15 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 424, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/murray-v-buckner-ohsuperctcinci-1913.