Shaw's Jewelry Shop, Inc. v. New York Herald Co.

170 A.D. 504, 156 N.Y.S. 651, 1915 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6079
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided December 30, 1915·Published·Cited by 12 cases

Opinion

McLaughlin, J.:

In October, 1911, and from then to and including the time of the trial of this action plaintiff was the lessee of a store and basement at No. 1341 Broadway in the city of New York, where it did a retail business in jewelry and novelties. The defendant, which publishes the New York Herald and Evening Telegram, then and at the time of the trial occupied a building on the easterly side of Broadway, opposite plaintiff’s store. In October, 1911, 1912 and 1913 the defendant operated on the westerly wall of its building, opposite plaintiff’s store, a contrivance designated in the record as “an automatic baseball playograph ” on which was reproduced each play of the baseball games in the series known as the “World’s Series.” Nineteen of such games were reproduced by the defendant on this playograph during the time mentioned, each of which commenced about two and continued until shortly after four o’clock in the afternoon. These exhibitions attracted a very large number of people, who congregated in the street and on the sidewalk in front of plaintiff’s store, and on October 8, 1913, [506] it commenced this action to enjoin the defendant from giving such exhibitions upon its building, and for damages alleged to have been sustained by plaintiff in its business by reason thereof. Between August 5 and 25, 1914, both inclusive, the defendant also displayed on a screen placed on the same wall of its building stereopticon views, bulletins, etc., relating to or connected with the European war then in progress, or some of the rulers of the nations involved. This exhibition also attracted a large number of people, who congregated in the street and on the sidewalk in front of plaintiff’s store, and on August 10, 1914, the plaintiff moved, on the complaint and affidavits, for an injunction pendente lite, which was granted — the order entered being sufficiently broad to enjoin the use of both the playograph and stereopticon. The action was tried in November, 1914, and the court found that the use of the playograph and stereopticon by the defendant constituted public nuisances and the plaintiff had been damaged by the former in the sum of $729.59, but as to the latter the evidence was not sufficient to show the amount of damage. Judgment was thereupon entered in plaintiff’s favor for the amount of damage sustained by it, and perpetually enjoining defendant from the further use of the playograph, stereopticon and screen. The defendant appeals.

The appellant contends, and I think correctly, that the respondent was not entitled, under the allegations of the complaint, to any relief so far as the stereopticon and screen were concerned. There are no allegations in the complaint upon which the parties went to trial respecting the stereopticon or screen, nor was the complaint amended at the trial. The purpose of a pleading is to inform the adverse party what the one serving it claims the issues are to be determined at the trial. And at the trial the proof offered should be confined to the issues as made by the pleadings. This applies as well to an equitable action as one at law. (Brightson v. Claflin Co., 180 N. Y. 76; Wright v. Delafield, 25 id. 266; Sweet v. Marsh, 133 App. Div. 315; Rubber Co. v. Goodyear, 9 Wall. 788; Simmons Medicine Co. v. Simmons, 81 Fed. Rep. 163.) Objection fl.nd exception were taken to the admission of evidence bearing upon the use of the stereopticon and screen upon the [507] ground that such matters were not within the issues. Such evidence was clearly inadmissible under the pleadings and so much of the judgment as depends upon it is, therefore, erroneous.

As to the playograph, the appellant contends that even if it did constitute a nuisance, which it is insisted it did not, such nuisance was abated at the time of the trial and respondent was not, therefore, entitled to an injunction preventing its use. The playograph was last used on October 11, 1913, and the amended complaint, which was served in December, 1913, contained no allegation of any threat to use the playograph after the “World’s Series” games in October of that year, and in fact it was not used thereafter. That the defendant had abandoned the use, in the manner of which complaint was made, of the playograph, stereopticon and screen at the time of the trial, was recognized by plaintiff’s counsel in his opening, in which he stated that plaintiff had no complaint to make of the use then being made of them.

At the trial it also appeared that the respondent’s lease of premises No. 1341 Broadway expired May 1, 1915. The playograph, according to the allegations of the complaint and proof, was only used by the defendant during the month of October each year and, therefore, its use in October following the trial could not injure the plaintiff because its lease would have expired the previous May. Under such circumstances, I do not think the plaintiff was entitled to an injunction as to that.

I am of the opinion, however, that the evidence sustains the finding that the use of the playograph at the times alleged and proved constituted a nuisance, and that the plaintiff was damaged in the amount found by reason thereof. The defendant’s newspapers, at the time of the exhibition, in October, 1913, announced that the number of persons who witnessed the exhibition was between '30,000 and 40,000. The exhibits in the record show the congested condition of the street and sidewalk in front of the plaintiff’s store. They became so congested that between eighty and ninety policemen were required to handle the crowd. The south-bound traffic on Broadway between Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth streets was substantially restricted to the easterly side of the street. Pedestrians who [508] stopped to look at goods displayed in show windows of the. plaintiff’s and neighboring stores were directed by the police to keep moving and ingress and egress to and from plaintiff’s store were very materially interfered with.

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Shaw's Jewelry Shop, Inc. v. New York Herald Co., 170 A.D. 504, 156 N.Y.S. 651, 1915 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6079 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1915).

170 A.D. 504 (Shaw's Jewelry Shop, Inc. v. New York Herald Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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