Euler v. Sullivan

Briscoe, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an action for damages brought by the appellee against the appellant for a nuisance. The defendant, at the trial, reserved one exception, and that was to the granting of the plaintiff’s prayer, and to the rejection of two prayers offered on his part. The evidence on the part of the plaintiff shows, that she is the owner of a lot of ground 15x58 feet, which is improved by a brick dwelling, fronting on Little Paca street and running back to Burgundy alley, in Baltimore City, which is used by her as a store and a dwelling; that the defendant owns the property adjoining thereto, which he uses for the purposes of a paper box factory; that on defendant’s premises there is an engine, boiler, and smoke stack, the latter being about a foot and a half from plaintiff’s house; that she rented out rooms in her dwelling, and also kept a shop in a part of it; that the articles which she kept in her shop were rendered unsaleable, and the rent of her duelling was diminished by the smoke, steam, and cinders from defendant’s chimney.

And the evidence on the part of the defendant shows that there are other steam engines, boilers and smoke ■stacks in factories located near this dwelling; that smoke, steam, and cinders were emitted from these factories and mingled with the smoke from the chimney of his factory; that a cold storage factory has two large boilers and engines situated about 70 feet from this dwelling; that the defendant has a small engine and boiler, and kept them in a good condition; that he used his engine in the usual and ordinary way, and did not cause the smoke, steam, and cinders to be emitted in an ⁶¹⁸ unreasonable manner from his premises, so as unnecessarily to injure the plaintiff. Upon this state of facts the Court below granted the following instruction on the part of the plaintiff: “If they find from the evidence that the defendant erected a boiler and engine near to the house and lot of the plaintiff, and that smoke, steam, and cinders escaped from the chimney of the defendant connected with the said boiler; which smoke, steam, and cinders entered the premises of the plaintiff in such quantity or to such extent as to render her house and premises less comfortable, enjoyable, or useful than they otherwise would have been, then the plaintiff is entitled to their verdict.” There were two prayers offered by the defendant, which we will consider hereafter. Does, then, the instruction given by the Court on the part of the plaintiff correctly define the law, as applicable to' this case ? In the recent case of the.

Susquehanna Fertilizer Co. vs. Malone, 73 Md., 276 , this Court said, that “no principle is better settled than that where a trade or business is carried on in such a manner as to interfere with the reasonable and comfortable enjoyment by another of his property, or which occasions material injury to the property itself, a wrong is done to the neighboring owner, for which an action will lie, ”. (vide cases there cited). But all of the authorities hold that th¡e injury must be of a character to diminish materially the value of the property or seriously interfere with the ordinary comfort and enjoyment of it, such as would entitle the party injured to substantial damages. Adams vs. Michael, 38 Md., 123 .

And in the case of Dittman and Berger vs. Repp, 50 Md., 522 , this Court held, that in determining the question of nuisance from smoke or noxious vapor, reference must always be had to the locality, the nature of the trade, the character of the machinery, and the manner of using the property producing the annoyance and injury com ⁶¹⁹ plained of. A party dwelling in the midst of a crowded commercial and manufacturing city cannot claim to have the same quiet and freedom from annoyance, that he might rightfully claim if he were dwelling in