Perrin v. Crescent City Stockyard & Slaughterhouse Co.

43 So. 938, 119 La. 83, 1907 La. LEXIS 439
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedApril 15, 1907
DocketNo. 16,416
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 43 So. 938 (Perrin v. Crescent City Stockyard & Slaughterhouse Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Perrin v. Crescent City Stockyard & Slaughterhouse Co., 43 So. 938, 119 La. 83, 1907 La. LEXIS 439 (La. 1907).

Opinion

Statement of the Case.

NICHOLLS, J.

The plaintiff alleges: That he resides in the First Ward of the parish of St. Bernard, in premises by him leased from the Friseoville Realty Company, on their lands fronting the public road extending alongside the Mississippi river; his said dwelling house being at a distance of about 300 feet in the rear of said public road. That he and his family have occupied said dwelling for many years. That he is entitled to the quiet and peaceful enjoyment of his home and its comforts, unobstructed by noisome vapors or odors created by manufactories or industries of any kind or diseription established in the vicinity, and negligently conducted by the owners thereof. That the Crescent City Stockyard & Slaughterhouse Company, Limited, a corporation organized under the laws of this state and whose domicile is in this parish, have for many years been operating and are still operating a slaughterhouse upon their property fronting the Mississippi river, situated about 700 feet below the United States Barracks, and immediately adjoining the property of the Friseoville Realty Company, upon which stands petitioner’s dwelling.

[85]*85That said, slaughterhouse was established (by said defendants in conformity with their ■charter of incorporation on the 15th of February, 1893, the purposes of which are in said charter said to be to operate stock landing yards and slaughterhouses for the yarding, sheltering, and slaughtering of all kinds •of live stock, etc. That in addition to their ■said business of stock landing, yarding, and sheltering live stock, authorized by their charter, the said corporation in violation of their said charter, in disregard of the rights and comforts of the inhabitants and property ■owners of the vicinage, and also in violation of the ordinance of the police jury of the parish in such case made and provided, have recently, within the last three years, established upon their premises, at a distance •of about 300 feet from the river front, a fertilizing plant and rendering and boiling factory, for the manufacture of fertilizer, tallow, hog’s hair bristles, and other articles for sale.

Petitioner represents that the ordinance of the police jury of the parish of St. Bernard enacted February 2, 1891, provides that it shall be unlawful to carry on the business of tallow or oil, or rendering factories, or other establishments for the rendering of animal matter, at any point within three-quarters of a mile of the abattoirs of the Orescent •Oity Live Stock Landing & Slaughterhouse Company, and that all such factories and establishments shall be established in the rear of the new line of the New Orleans & Gulf Railroad Company; that is, on the lake side thereof. That said ordinance was at a following meeting of said police jury, held on March 4, 1891, amended so as to read that from and after the 1st of March, 1891, it shall be unlawful to carry on any such business or factories at any point within 100 feet of the new line on the lake side of the New Orleans & Gulf Railroad Company, etc., which tracks are situated about a mile towards the lake and in the rear of the Mississippi river.

That since the establishing of said factory thé neighborhood and surroundings have been infected by noisome smells and odors, to the extent that living in the locality is unsupportable, and that repeated complaints have been made, to no avail.

That in the conduct of their factories aforesaid the defendants allow the matter, consisting of offal and gut fat, excrement of slaughtered animals, from which the fertilizer is made and tallow is made, some of which refuse matters are carted from the city of New Orleans, to remain in the open and accumulate in their factory until a putrefied mass, emitting noisome gas and vapor, filling the atmosphere with nauseous and penetrating vapors. That the noisome vapors and odors emanating from said putrefied mass of animal refuse, entrails, hoofs, and excrements, etc., thus exposed as aforesaid, and especially when, during or after the process of boiling and rendering the same, the vats are opened, the noisome gases and vapors are unwholesome and nauseating, contaminate the atmosphere, and pollute the air at a great distance, including the locality where petitioner resides and owns property, to his great discomfort, injury, and damage, and that of his family, and depreciate the value of all property in the vicinage, including petitioner’s. The said gases and odors caused by said defendants’ acts are unwholesome, unhealthy, and dangerous, not only to the inhabitants of the immediate vicinity or neighborhood, but to the general public, for the reason that the said factory is conducted in close proximity, in the same building where the meats of animals slaughtered by them are dressed and prepared for the New Orleans market, and the said vapors, being so penetrating, necessarily taint said meat. That so disagreeable, noisome, and nauseous are the odors emanating [87]*87from the defendants’ said factory that his invited guests have on several occasions been compelled to leave the dinner table, that he and his family cannot enjoy their meals by day and sleep by night, and that his friends have often inquired how he could live in such a place. That the works complained of are located in the center of the most thickly populated portion of the parish, being surrounded by residences and business houses within 900 feet of the United States Barracks where some 300 or 400 soldiers and officers and their families are quartered, and is located less than 400 feet from the upper line of Friscoville, a newly established village, in which petitioner lives, and which is rapidly being settled, and has been laid out by capitalists, who have organized a joint-stock company in which petitioner owns a large interest, amounting to $20,000 in stock, besides his being the owner of several lots by him purchased near said factory, as he contemplated building a comfortable home thereon. That the said village has been divided into lots, which are now in the market for sale, and that the nuisance he complains of herein, is the only impediment to a free and rapid disposal of the same — all to petitioner’s great loss, damage, and injury, and that of the general public interested in establishing homes thereon, adding to the population and wealth of that section of the parish. That at the time a privilege was first granted to the corporation to erect and operate a slaughterhouse on the site now occupied by the defendant, of whose negligence and unlawful act in establishing a rendering plant petitioner complains, the territory above and below same fronting on the Mississippi river and in the rear from the United States Barracks on the lower line of New Orleans down the Ohalmette, in the parish of St. Bernard, was sparsely settled, and in some sections thinly populated.

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Bluebook (online)
43 So. 938, 119 La. 83, 1907 La. LEXIS 439, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/perrin-v-crescent-city-stockyard-slaughterhouse-co-la-1907.