Nuisance Flashcards
What makes Nuisance different from Negligence and Trespass?
Nuisance focuses on whether the impact on plaintiff’s property is substantial and creates unreasonable interference with use and enjoyment of the property.
Negligence focuses on whether the defendant’s conduct was reasonable.
Trespass is about intrusion onto another’s property.
What is a private nuisance?
A private nuisance is something causing a substantial and unreasonable interference with a landowner’s use and enjoyment of their property.
What is a public nuisance?
An unreasonable interference with a right common to the general public (e.g., safety, aesthetics, morals, drugs, etc.)
Can members of the public bring suits for public nuisance?
In some states, only the attorney general can bring a suit for public nuisance.
In other states, public may bring a suit for public nuisance, but they must show their harm is distinct from the harm suffered by the general public.
Can you bring a suit against anticipatory nuisances?
No, the nuisance must have occurred.
What is the Restatement Test for nuisance?
Assessing the gravity of harm to plaintiff balanced against utility of defendant’s conduct.
What is necessary before the Restatement Test?
Substantial harm (read: a threshold injury) must have occurred.
What are the factors evaluated when looking at the Gravity of Harm to the Plaintiff?
1) Extent of Harm
2) Character of Harm
3) Social value of use invaded
4) Suitability of plaintiff’s use to locality
5) Burden on the plaintiff to avoid the harm
What are the factors evaluated when looking at the Utility of the Defendant’s Conduct?
1) Social Value of Conduct
2) Suitability of defendant’s conduct to the character of the locality
3) Impracticability of preventing the invasion
What are the three kinds of remedies that can be granted for nuisance?
1) Damages
2) Injunction
3) Purchased Injunction
