Prijatel v. Sifco Industries, Inc.

353 N.E.2d 923, 47 Ohio Misc. 31, 1 Ohio Op. 3d 322, 1974 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 203
CourtCuyahoga County Common Pleas Court
DecidedDecember 3, 1974
DocketNo. 917518
StatusPublished

This text of 353 N.E.2d 923 (Prijatel v. Sifco Industries, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Prijatel v. Sifco Industries, Inc., 353 N.E.2d 923, 47 Ohio Misc. 31, 1 Ohio Op. 3d 322, 1974 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 203 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1974).

Opinion

Hitchcock, J.

(By assignment from Paulding County.) Plaintiffs, 18 individuals residing in. Cleveland in the vicinity of St. Clair Ave. and E. 64th St., charge defendants with maintaining a private nuisance and ask that their activities be enjoined in the future and that damages be paid for past conduct.

Defendants, Sifco Industries, Inc., and its subsidiary division, The Steel Improvement & Forge Company (Forge) operate a modern industrial forge shop at 970 E. 64th St., and at this location have continuously done so since 1928. The plant consists of several large factory buildings, office buildings, and facilities for storage and auxiliary operation. It occupies an area of about 350,000 square feet bounded on the north by sidings of the Pennsylvania (now Penn [32]*32Central) railroad; on tito south by Spilker Ave. and a fence running between E. 63rd and. E. 64th Sts. Another area of roughly the same size liés immediately north of mentioned sidings and to the south of a wide right of way belonging to the New York Central (now Penn Central) railroad. Also, about % mile north-northwest of the present plant location, is the south shore of Lake Erie.

When this cause was heard in December, 1973, and January, 1974, defendants at this plant were employing 98 salaried persons and 406 hourly workers. Throughout, the past 10 years this total number of employees has almost always been within 10%, plus or minus, of the present number of 504. Most of the plaintiffs leave their residences to go to work, and are not employed in the vicinity of their residence.

Plaintiffs assert that the noise and vibration emanating from the forge shop’s operation are so severe and unbearable as to constitute a nuisance enjoinable by the court and justifying damages by reason of past injury to persons and property. By agreement of counsel the evidence and issues in the trial were confined to the injunction issue

Also, a request by some plaintiffs that this action be declared a class action in behalf, of others allegedly similarly situated, was denied.

There were 14 plaintiffs who initiated this action,; one of those withdrew before trial, and at the'trial five other individuals were given leave to become parties plaintiff. During the years 1943-1945 (when the forge shop was in full wartime production 24 hours per day) similar'suits'were brought by about 64 owners of 34 tracts ,of land in the vicinity. All of these were’'' settled and dismissed.. line court finds these cases have no relevance to the present controversy in law and/or in fact because since' World War II there has been no'24-hour operation; only 16-hour operation with a few overtime hours upon occasion.

The court has carefully considered all of the evidencie presented in a' nine-day trial and has considered every authority and precedent called to the court ,’s attention.

A fair preponderance of the evidence establishes th'át defendants do operate a forge shop of large proportions and that it does produce noise and vibration .such that.its [33]*33■operation would he prohibited were it to be newly erected in a residential area.

Plaintiffs are sincere, essentially honest and responsible people who are disturbed by the noise and vibration produced by the forge operation. They live in houses scattered over an area wherein there are at least 100 homesites occupied by persons who are making no complaint. Noise and vibration emanate from the forge operation, and both are definitely observable in the homes occupied by the plaintiffs. Many of the plaintiffs believe that the vibrations have caused damage to their houses. They failed, however, to adduce any scientific evidence to support their belief. Many said the noise interferes with their ■sleep, but they failed to show that they were of average sensibility.

Many Ohio decisions recite that each case of nuisance .must stand by itself and be determined with reference to the circumstances peculiar to it. Still they seem clearly to establish that manufacturing activity, conducted in a factory district, does not amount to a nuisance unless a negligent, careless, or improper use of industrial equipment produces noise, vibration, or other disturbing effect over and above that reasonably caused by the careful and proper use of such equipment or machinery, so as to seriously disturb and discomfit persons of ordinary sensibility. See Goodall v. Crofton (1877), 33 Ohio St. 271; Grothlich v. Klein & Cohn (1909), 13 C. C. (N. S.) 335, 22 C. D. 665; Gau v. Ley (1916), 27 O. C. A. 1, 28 C. D. 235; Bell v. Pollak Steel Co. (1916), 19 N. P. (N. S.) 529-531; 28 O. D. 28-50.

Here the evidence does show that for several months, in 1973, the Hasenclever 3000 ton hydraulic forging press not infrequently did produce a peculiarly excruciating whine or squeal which was probably enjoinable under the rule just recited. It was also most distressing to defendants who made great effort to discover the cause, which they found attributable to a type of oil not suited to this particular machine. Thereupon this problem was promptly corrected. This discomfort, corrected as soon as its cause was discovered, in all likelihood caused at most only nominal damages. The reason is that the evidence clearly shows that a continuing, outstanding program of noise abatement atid [34]*34vibration control is constantly maintained by defendants, in respect to instant forging operation.

We will next examine defendants’ contention, whielu is that their activity does not constitute a private nuisance,, and even if it does, they have a right to operate a forge shop* on these premises for the reason that they have done so* openly, notoriously, and under a claim of right for more-than 21 years; so that they have acquired as an incorporeal hereditament, the right to use their real estate so involved, at this location as a forge shop when such operation is carefully and prudently conducted.

The court’s examination of this claim finds that not all the states have squarely decided this issue and of those which have, some have declared for prescriptive right, others for no prescriptive right, and others resort to a balancing-of equities. See general discussion found in the article, Spater, Noise cmd the Law (1965), 68 Mich. L. Rev. 1373, and, in the comment, Levitin, Change of Neighborhood in Nuisance Cases (1964), 13 Clev.-Mar. L. Rev. 340. Nor has the court overlooked the Arizona case of Spur Industries v. Del E. Webb Development Co. (1972), 108 Ariz. 178, 494 P. 2d 700. Here the trial judge, in a jurisdiction which has not recognized prescriptive right in nuisance situations, enjoined a beef production operation where from 20,000 to 30,000 cattle were being constantly fed so that daily over 1,000,000 pounds of wet manure was produced. On appeal, the state’s Supreme Court, at page 182 said “* * * despite the admittedly good feedlot management and good housekeeping practices by Spur, the resulting.

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Related

Spur Industries, Inc. v. Del E. Webb Development Co.
494 P.2d 700 (Arizona Supreme Court, 1972)
Anneberg v. Kurtz
28 S.E.2d 769 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1944)
Louisville Brick & Tile Co. v. Calmelat
6 Ohio App. 435 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1917)

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Bluebook (online)
353 N.E.2d 923, 47 Ohio Misc. 31, 1 Ohio Op. 3d 322, 1974 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 203, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/prijatel-v-sifco-industries-inc-ohctcomplcuyaho-1974.