Wilson v. Evans Hotel Co.

4 S.E.2d 155, 188 Ga. 498, 124 A.L.R. 373, 1939 Ga. LEXIS 557
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedJune 14, 1939
DocketNo. 12866
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 4 S.E.2d 155 (Wilson v. Evans Hotel Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wilson v. Evans Hotel Co., 4 S.E.2d 155, 188 Ga. 498, 124 A.L.R. 373, 1939 Ga. LEXIS 557 (Ga. 1939).

Opinions

Grice, Justice.

The assignments of error relate to the overruling of a general demurrer to the petition, and to the grant of an interlocutory injunction. It is to be inferred from statements contained in the bill of exceptions that on the hearing testimony was taken; but no evidence was brought to this court. We must therefore act on the assumption that there was evidence before the judge which supported the allegations of the petition; and the only question presented for our decision in the second exception is whether, conceding that the petitioners proved their case, they were entitled to the interlocutory injunction which was granted. The first exception raises a kindred issue, to wit, should the petition have been dismissed on general demurrer ?

A filling-station is not per se a nuisance. Standard Oil Co. v. Kahn, 165 Ga. 575 (141 S. E. 643); Howell v. Board of Commissioners of Quitman, 169 Ga. 74 (3) (149 S. E. 779); City of Hawkinsville v. Williams, 185 Ga. 396 (195 S. E. 162), and cit. Nor are garages for repairing and vulcanizing automobile tires. Morrow v. Atlanta, 162 Ga. 228 (133 S. E. 345). A nuisance per se is an act, occupation, or structure which is a nuisance at all times and under all circumstances, regardless of location or surroundings. Simpson v. DuPont Powder Co., 143 Ga. 465 (85 S. E. 344, L. R. A. 1915E, 430). The erection and operation of gasoline filling-stations are not nuisances because they are erected in residential sections and in close proximity to residences. Standard Oil Co. v. Kahn, City of Hawkinsville v. Williams, supra. Where the business alleged to be a nuisance is lawful, and can be carried on without the injuries complained of, the defendant should not be restrained from carrying it on at all, but should be restrained from so carrying it on as to be injurious and offensive, leaving him the right to carry it on in a proper manner. Georgia RA. &c. Co. v. Maddox, 116 Ga. 64 (42 S. E. 315); Pig’n Whistle Sandwich Shops Inc. v. Keith, 167 Ga. 735 (146 S. E. 455); Warren Co. v. Dickson, 185 Ga. 481, 484 (195 S. E. 568). In Holman [501]*501v. Athens Empire Laundry Co., 149 Ga. 345 (100 S. E. 207), it was said: “Every one has the right to use his property as he sees fit, provided that in so doing he does not invade the rights of others unreasonably, judged by the ordinary standards of life and according to the notions of reasonable men. The right to use one’s property as he pleases implies a like right in every other person; and it is qualified by the doctrine that the use in the first instance must be a reasonable one. The maxim is sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas. . . That the business itself is offensive to others, or that property in the neighborhood of such business is necessarily adversely affected thereby, or that persons of fastidious taste would prefer its removal, is not sufficient. Applying the foregoing principles to the case in hand, the defendant may make any use of its property, and carry on any business not per se a nuisance, that produces no unnecessary, unreasonable, unusual, or extraordinary impregnation of the air with smoke or soot, to the sensible inconvenience and discomfort of plaintiff’s tenants, or to the actual, tangible, and substantial injury of plaintiff’s realty.” The injuries and inconveniences to persons residing near this filling-station, such as noises, etc., which result ordinarily and from necessity in the conduct of their business of repairing cars, trucks, and tires, are not to be classed as nuisances. Compare Austin v. Augusta Terminal Ry. Co., 108 Ga. 671 (34 S. E. 852, 47 L. R. A. 755); Georgia R. &c. Co. v. Maddox, supra; Thrasher v. Atlanta, 178 Ga. 514, 520 (173 S. E. 817, 99 A. L. R. 158).

We are of the opinion that so much of the interlocutory order as prohibited the defendant from working on cars, trucks, and tires between the hours of 11 p. m. and 6 a. m., except on .Saturday nights when the hours are 12 to 6 a. m., was erroneous. Working on and repairing automobiles, trucks, and tires is a lawful business, and none the less so because conducted between the hours of 11 p. m. and 6 a. m. Being a legitimate business in which the defendants were engaged, the court erred in enjoining them from using the property between the specified hours for the purposes stated, or from engaging in the work indicated above. Morrow v. Atlanta, supra. Nothing contrary to what is here ruled was decided in Hill v. McBurney Oil & Fertilizer Co., 112 Ga. 788, 793 (38 S. E. 42, 52 L. R. A. 398), Warren Co. v. Dickson, supra, or Poole v. Arnold, 187 Ga. 734 (2 S. E. 2d 83). If anything in[502]*502consistent herewith was held in Hunnicutt v. Eaton, 184 Ga. 485 (191 S. E. 919), that case will not be followed. The three eases last cited dealt, not with essential occnpations, but with amusements and pastimes. In Hill v. McBurney Oil & Fertilizer Co., supra, this court had before it a ease of enjoining the blowing of a steam whistle at a manufacturing plant situated in a populous residence community. The court there found that the blowing of the whistle in the manner shown was unnecessary; but Chief Justice Simmons, after quoting our Code section defining a nuisance, added: "This, we think, is not intended to change the common-law definition of a nuisance, and is sufficient, in any case, to include the blowing of a large steam whistle, in a populous residence community, with so loud, harsh, and terrific a sound as to destroy plaintiffs’ slumbers, injure their health, and seriously interfere with their reasonable enjoyment of their habitations. Certainly it is a nuisance, under the code definition or any other we have seen, to blow such a whistle in such a manner at unreasonable and unseasonable hours and without reason or necessity therefor; and that is the case made out by the petition and the evidence of the plaintiffs. See, in this connection, 2 Wood, Nuisances, § 613 et seq.” Since in the Hill ease the court expressly ruled that the blowing of the whistle in the manner shown was unnecessary, that decision is not authority for the contention that the noise from the whistle was a nuisance, regardless of the manner in which the blowing was done, or the necessity therefor. Hunnicutt v. Eaton, supra, was a decision by four Justices, and involved the operation of a “saloon, roadhouse, resort, and dancing place.” It appeared that people congregated there at night, and remained there “throughout the night drinking, cursing, fighting, using vulgar, profane, and obscene language.” The majority of the court was of the opinion that the evidence was sufficient to authorize a finding that the defendant was operating a lawful business in such a manner that it became a nuisance per accidens. The minority opinion stated that the judge should not have enjoined the operation of the business in its entirety, but should have specified the acts found objectionable.

In Warren Co. v. Dickson, supra, this court had under consideration a demurrer to a petition in a suit for injunction against the operation of a baseball park at nights and Sundays, and ruled that [503]

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Bluebook (online)
4 S.E.2d 155, 188 Ga. 498, 124 A.L.R. 373, 1939 Ga. LEXIS 557, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilson-v-evans-hotel-co-ga-1939.