Dargan v. Waddill

• Decision Date: 31 December 1848
• Citation: 9 Ired. 244,49 Am.Dec. 421,31 N.C. 244
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: ATLAS J. DARGAN v. JAMES W. WADDILL.

9 Ired. 244

31 N.C. 244

49 Am.Dec. 421

ATLAS J. DARGAN

v.JAMES W. WADDILL.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

December Term, 1848.

A stable in a town is not, like a slaughter pen or a hog style, necessarily or prima facie a nuisance. But if it be so built, so kept, or so used, as to destroy the comfort of persons owning and occupying adjoining premises and impairing their value as places of habitation, it does thereby become a nuisance.

If the adjacent proprietors be annoyed by it in any manner, which could be avoided, it becomes an actionable nuisance, though a stable in itself be a convenient and lawful erection.

Appeal from the Superior Court of Law of Anson County, at the Fall Term, 1848, his Honor Judge PEARSON presiding.

This was in case for erecting stables so near the dwelling house of the plaintiff, as, by the noise of the horses and the smell of the litter, &c., to render the plaintiff's house uncomfortable to live in, and thereby much impair its value. The plaintiff proved that his wife, then Mrs. Bates, about the year 1839, purchased a dwelling house and lot, situate on one of the main streets in Wadesboro', and being the north-west corner lot, of the square immediately west of the Court House. The square, commencing on the street in front of the Court House, runs 120 yards on Wade street, and 140 yards South on Green Street, and the plaintiff's lot had a front of 40 yards on Wade Street, and extended back about 70 yards. The dwelling house, purchased by the plaintiff's wife, fronted on Wade Street, and had been erected and used for a dwelling for thirty years or more. Mrs. Bates had the house moved some five or six yards back, so as to have a small front yard; and refitted it and made some additions.

The defendant, in 1841, purchased the house and lot situate immediately opposite the Court House, and being the North-east corner lot of the square above described. It extended 40 yards on Wade Street and 70 yards on Green Street. The defendant refitted and made many additions to the house, so as to fit it for an Hotel.

The lot, between the plaintff's and the defendant's lots, which was 40 yards on Wade Street and extended back 70 yards, had several small buildings on it in front, which had been used as store-houses and shops for Mechanics, and in the rear there was a small stable, fit for one or two horses, which had been used for some fifteen years, without a plank floor. In 1841, the defendant purchased this middle lot, removed the small houses in front, with a design of using the lot by erecting a stable suitable for his Hotel. Mrs. Bates notified the defendant of her objections to his putting stables so near her dwelling, but the defendant, notwithstanding, erected a large frame stable at the South-west corner of the lot, fifty feet long and wide enough for two rows of stable. The stable was within three feet of the line along side of the plaintiff's garden, and near a small stable and privy of the plaintiff. The distance from the back piazza of the plaintiff's dwelling to the nearest corner of the stable was 33 yards. The balance of the lot the defendant used as a stable or horse lot, and also built upon it a small log stable fit for two horses between the large stable and the plaintiff's dwelling, the nearest corner being about 12 yards from the plaintiff's piazza, near his kitchen and smoke-house.

The plaintiff married Mrs. Bates in 1841, and resided afterwards with her in the said dwelling house. The defendant's stable was completed and put in use on the 1st of March. The large stable had a plank floor, and could hold fifty horses. It was proved, that the noise from the tramping of the horses, particularly on public occasions, could be heard by all residing on this square, and the adjoining squares night and day, and rendered the dwelling house of the plaintiff uncomfortable and disagreeable, and that Mrs. Dargan, who was a nervous lady, and in delicate health, was very much annoyed by it. Some evidence was offered tending to show, that, before the writ issued, a disagreeable smell, arising from the defendants stables, could be perceived in the house of the plaintiff in damp weather, when the wind was blowing from the South to the house, and that, although the defendant had a privy on his other lot, many persons used the stable for that purpose. Some evidence was offered tending to show, that, before the writ issued, the defendant kept a stallion in the small stable, but not until the last of the summer, if at all, until after the writ issued. The witnesses considered the value of the plaintiff's house, as a dwelling, impaired by the erection of the stables so near to it.

The Court...