Owen v. Phillips

73 Ind. 284, 1 Ind. L. Rep. 401
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 15, 1881
DocketNo. 8151
StatusPublished
Cited by53 cases

This text of 73 Ind. 284 (Owen v. Phillips) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Owen v. Phillips, 73 Ind. 284, 1 Ind. L. Rep. 401 (Ind. 1881).

Opinion

Elliott, J.

— Issue ivas joined upon the complaint of appellants, wherein they charged appellees with maintaining a nuisance, and prayed for an injunction against its continu[286]*286anee and for an order of abatement. The trial was by jury, and resulted in a verdict and judgment against appellants.

The substantive allegations of the complaint may be thus summarized: Appellants are the owners of a house and lot in the town of New Harmony, which they occupy as their dwelling-house ; that on the 26th day of April, 1878, Robinson, Thomas & Co. erected and put in operation a flouring mill, in close proximity to the house of appellants ; that the appellees subsequently became the owners of said mill; that on the 20th of December, 1878, the mill was burned; that the appellees threaten to rebuild ; that the mill was a nuisance, and that it can not be operated without becoming a nuisance ; that the smoke and cinders make the water of appellants’ cisterns and wells foul and impure ; that the noise, the smoke, dust, dirt, and offensive odors caused by the running of the mill, essentially interfere with appellants’ enjoyment of life and property.

A single question is presented upon the pleadings. The court below overruled appellants’ motion to strike out part of the answer of the appellees, and of this ruling complaint is made. We can not reverse for an erroneous ruling denying a motion to strike out mere surplusage. The rule of practice upon this subject is now too firmly settled to warrant us in disturbing it, even were we so inclined. The Baltimore, etc., R. W. Co. v. Pixley, 61 Ind. 22 ; Galvin v. The State, ex rel., 64 Ind. 96 ; City of Crawfordsville v. Brundage, 57 Ind. 262; Mires v. Alley, 51 Ind. 507; Rout v. Woods, 67 Ind. 319. Appellants argue that, as evidence was admitted of the irrelevant matters stated in the answer, there should be a reversal. This question is not in the record. In order to make such an objection available, the parties should, upon the trial, object to the introduction of the evidence, take the proper exception, and by proper assignment among their reasons for a new trial present the ruling for review. This was not done in this case.

[287]*287The questions of difficulty are those which arise upon the ruling denying appellants a new trial, and grow out of the giving, modifying, and refusing of instructions.

The seventh instruction asked by the appellants reads as follows : “If the jury find from the evidence that the running and use of said mill lessens the personal enjoyment of plaintiffs, by reason of the noise, smoke, dust, dirt and cinders, in their said dwelling, then the allegations in the plaintiffs’ complaint have been sustained.”

The eighth instruction, as asked by appellants, was as follows : “If the jury find from the evidence that the per.sonal enjoyment of the plaintiffs in their residence has been and will be lessened, by either the noise, smoke, dust, dirt, cinders, horses, mules or teams, caused by the running and use of said mill, then the allegations of the complaint have -been sustained.”

Both of these instructions were modified by the court, .-and, as the modifications are essentially the same, we con-' sider them together. The modification of the seventh instruction consisted in writing after the word “ mill,” the words “materially and essentially the modification of the eighth was made by inserting the words just quoted after the words ■“has been and will be.” Appellants argue that the insertion of these words radically changed the definition of “nuisance.” . We think otherwise. The relief sought is not the recovery of damages merely, but an injunction restraining appellees from rebuilding their mill and from conducting their business. It is important to keep in mind the fact that the business of milling does not belong to that class which constitute nuisances per se. It is also important to sharply mark the distinction between suits for injunction and actions for damages. In the latter class, the remedy is an ordinary one ; in the former, the extraordinary powers of the court are- invoked. It is not every injury which will support an action for damages that will entitle the complainant to relief by [288]*288injunction. McCord v. Iker, 12 Ohio, 387 ; Rhodes v. Dunbar, 57 Pa. St. 274 ; Goodall v. Crofton, 33 Ohio St. 271; Wallace v. McVey, 6 Ind. 300 ; Laughlin v. The President, etc., 6 Ind. 223; McQuarrie v. Hildebrand, 23 Ind. 122; Smith v. Fitzgerald, 24 Ind. 316. There are solid reasons supporting this rule. A lawful business may be so conducted as to become a nuisance, but, in order to warrant interference-by injunction, the injury must be a material and essential one. Damages may be paid by the author of the nuisance and the-business not be stopped, but if injunction issues then the light to conduct the business is at an end. The necessity which will authorize the granting of the writ of injunction, to restrain the carrying on of a business lawful in itself, must be a strong and imperious one. If it were otherwise, all mills and manufactories might be stopped at the demand of those to whom they caused annoyance, even though the injury complained of might be slight and trivial. The court did right in modifying the instructions. Several instructions, asked by the appellants, upon the subject of the value of opinions given by witnesses, were refused, and, we think, rightly.

The instruction numbered eight, asked by appellants, was properly refused for the reason that it asserted that if the appellants’ property was diminished in value by the running of the appellees’ mill, the verdict should be in favor of appellants. This instruction was erroneous for at least two reasons : First, because it does not inform the jury that the diminution in value must be essential and material, and probably continuous ; second, because it does not inform the jury that, although damage may have resulted, there can not be a recovery unless the appellees were shown to have been guilty of some actionable wrong. In all such cases as the present, legal injury and resulting damages must be shown. Thex-e must be a concurrence of wrong and damage.

The thirteenth instruction asked by the appellants is as follows : “The right to enjoy pure air is an essential right; the-[289]*289right to enjoy pure water is an essential right; the right to be undisturbed by unusual noises, day or night, is an essential right, and he who deprives another of either essentially interferes with the enjoyment of life, and can be prevented from so doing by ‘injunction under the statute laws of this State.’ ” The court did not err in refusing to give this instruction. The mere fact that the appellees may have deprived- the appellants of the rights enumerated in the instruction did not entitle them to an injunction restraining the appellees from conducting one of the most useful of all the various pursuits of life. There must have been a wrongful deprivation of such rights. The instruction leaves entirely out of consideration the element of culpable wrong. Under the instruction as framed, all interferences, lawful or unlawful, with the property of another, would supply grounds for relief by injunction. The law recognizes no such doctrine.'

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Bluebook (online)
73 Ind. 284, 1 Ind. L. Rep. 401, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/owen-v-phillips-ind-1881.