Schneider v. Sweeney

66 Pa. D. & C. 437, 1948 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 73
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedAugust 5, 1948
Docketno. 6267
StatusPublished

This text of 66 Pa. D. & C. 437 (Schneider v. Sweeney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Schneider v. Sweeney, 66 Pa. D. & C. 437, 1948 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 73 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1948).

Opinion

Crumlish, J.,

Plaintiffs are the owners of premises 500 and 502 West Diamond Street, Philadelphia. Defendant Kane is the purchaser at sheriff sale on an unpaid tax lien of premises 504 West Diamond Street; the Sweeneys were predecessors in title to Kane. Plaintiffs complain that the Sweeneys allowed the soil pipe in their property to be filled with refuse, debris, foreign matters, and objects, causing the same to clog and overflow with resultant damage to property stored in the cellar of their property; that plaintiffs had been required to open the sewer and to remedy the condition at their own expense; that on January 20, 1948, the Department of Public Works of the City of Philadelphia advised them that Diamond Street was to be repaved from Front Street to Broad Street and that all sewer and other connections requiring renewals must be made immediately and that no such connection can be made for the next five years; that on being notified to remedy the condition of which complaint is made, defendants have failed to do so. Plaintiffs pray that a mandatory injunction be granted against defendants requiring them to abate the nuisance.

Separate answers were filed by the Sweeneys and Kane. These answers are almost identical. In substance, they deny that anything was done by them causing plaintiffs’ property to be filled with “waste, refuse, debris, foreign matters and objects or any other nuisance of whatsoever kind, character, and nature . . ; that they did not cause plaintiffs to open the sewer to remedy any condition caused by them; that any overflow was by reason of matters beyond their control; that their soil and drain pipes are in good condition; and, finally, that “plaintiffs desire to attempt a vacation of an easement which has been in existence for over 37 years” which defendants do not desire to give up.

[439]*439 Findings of Fact

1. Plaintiffs are the owners of premises 500-502 West Diamond Street, Philadelphia.

2. Plaintiffs conduct a taproom and lunchroom on said premises and in connection therewith store food, vegetables, and liquors in the cellar of said premises.

3. The Bureau of Highways and Street Cleaning, Department of Public Works, by writing dated January 20,1948, notified plaintiffs:

“You are hereby notified that the Bureau of Highways, acting under the authority of an ordinance of Council, and by the direction of the Director of Public Works, will proceed to pave-repave the cartway on

Diamond St. Front to Broad Street

in front of the property indicated above.

“You are, therefore, directed to procure immediately all necessary permits and within twenty (20) days of the date of service of this notice to have made all gas, water, sewer, electrical, telephone or other underground connections or repairs to or renewals of all existing connections that may be required within the next Five (5) years.”

4. Bernard Kane purchased premises 504 West Diamond Street, Philadelphia, at sheriff sale on January 5,1948.

5. Kane’s predecessors in the title of premises 504 West Diamond Street were defendants, Eugene Aloysius Sweeney, Margaret Sweeney, Mary Sweeney, and John Sweeney.

6. Defendants Kane, Margaret Sweeney, and John Sweeney do not reside at 504 West Diamond Street; the premises are occupied by defendant Eugene Aloysius Sweeney, his wife, two sons, two grandchildren, and his daughter, Mary Sweeney, who is also a defendant, as tenants of defendant Kane.

[440]*4407. The cesspool in the back yard of 504 West Diamond Street, drains into a sewer pipe which runs through the foundation wall of 502 and 504 West Diamond Street, is connected with a trap or open drain in the basement of 502 West Diamond Street, and empties into the sewer pipe in Diamond Street.

8. Filthy waste and solid objects from the cesspool located in the back yard of 504 West Diamond Street have interfered with the free drainage of said cesspool and have caused the cellar of plaintiffs’ premises to become flooded, damaging the food, vegetables, and other articles stored therein and giving forth noxious and offensive odors.

9. These overflows and consequential results have been recurrent since 1945.

10. Defendants Sweeney had notice of the nuisance existing on the premises 504 West Diamond Street by reason of their occupancy thereof.

11. Defendant Kane had notice of the nuisance existing on the premises 504 West Diamond Street by reason of a communication to him, dated February 3, 1948, and forwarded by plaintiffs’ counsel, and defendant Kane has had adequate opportunity to use reasonable diligence to abate the nuisance.

12. Said nuisance has not been abated.

13. Plaintiffs have sought to remedy this condition by rerouting drainage from their property into Fifth Street.

14. Despite plaintiffs’ efforts and expenditures of money in order to correct the situation, the flooding of plaintiffs’ cellar and consequential injuries have continued, necessitating plaintiffs’ repeatedly hiring a plumber to relieve the situation.

15. Diamond Street between Front Street and Broad Street is presently in process of being repaved and no permits for the purpose of opening it will be [441]*441granted for a period of five years after date of completion.

16. Defendants have had notice of the City of Philadelphia’s official notice regarding the paving of Diamond Street.

Discussion

The inference to be drawn from the testimony is that the drainage system in premises 504 West Diamond Street has been neglected and allowed to fall into a state of deterioration and dilapidation and that there is no present intention to correct the condition. The result is that offensive waste matters and solids clog the drainage system which causes a backing up or flooding of plaintiffs’ cellar. This flooding injures and damages whatever it comes in contact with in plaintiffs’ cellar and gives forth offensive odors.

The position of defendants, gathered from the requests filed in the matter, is that they enjoy an easement which cannot be interfered with by injunction. It is not necessary to decide the nature of defendants’ right; suffice it to say that their right, to adopt the words of Judge Hare, used in Jacobs v. Worrall, 15 L. I. 139 (1858), and adopted in Haugh’s Appeal, 102 Pa., 42, 44 (1883), “is a right only so long as it is used without material injury to the property of others; when its fetid contents begin to leak over upon joining lands it becomes a nuisance and is actionable as such.”

“A nuisance has been defined as ‘that which annoys and disturbs one in the possession of his property, rendering its ordinary use or occupation physically uncomfortable to him’ ”: Tuckachinsky v. Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Co., 199 Pa. 515, 518 (1901). But specifically, this complaint falls within the line of cases commencing with Jacobs v. Worrall, supra, and followed in Haugh’s Appeal, supra. See also Commonwealth v. Yost, 11 Pa. Superior Ct. 323, 341 (1899); Benscoter v. Huntingdon Valley Camp Meeting Associ[442]*442ation, 10 Kulp, 355 (1900); Kubacki v. Rapaport, 6 Berks 71 (1913). See also Pottstown Gas Co. v. Murphy, 39 Pa. 257 (1861).

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Related

Whiteley v. Mortgage Service Co.
12 A.2d 9 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1939)
Pottstown Gas Co. v. Murphy
39 Pa. 257 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1861)
Haugh's Appeal
102 Pa. 42 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1882)
Fow v. Roberts
108 Pa. 489 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1885)
Briegel v. City of Philadelphia
19 A. 1038 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1890)
Tuckachinsky v. Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Co.
49 A. 308 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1901)
Commonwealth v. Yost
11 Pa. Super. 323 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1899)
Long v. Fitzimmons
1 Watts & Serg. 530 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1841)

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Bluebook (online)
66 Pa. D. & C. 437, 1948 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 73, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schneider-v-sweeney-pactcomplphilad-1948.