Echard v. Kraft

• Decision Date: 01 October 2004
• Docket Number: No. 490,490
• Citation: 858 A.2d 1018,159 Md.App. 110
• Parties: William Bruce ECHARD v. Richard KRAFT, et al.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

858 A.2d 1018

159 Md.App. 110

William Bruce ECHARD v. Richard KRAFT, et al.

No. 490, Sept. Term 2003.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

October 1, 2004.

Gregory J. Swain, Annapolis, for Appellant.

S. Kennon Scott, Annapolis, for Appellee.

Panel: HOLLANDER, SALMON, and RAYMOND G. THIEME, Jr. (Ret., Specially Assigned), JJ.

SALMON, Judge.

In "Mending Wall," Robert Frost quotes his neighbor as having said, "Good fences make good neighbors." Frost, however, knew that this was not always true, viz:

If I could put a notion in his head: "Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I'd build a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offense."

The case that gives rise to this appeal had its origin when one neighbor built a fence, which, to put it mildly, caused great offense. The fence was so offensive to appellant, William Echard ("Echard"), that it led him to engage in acts of rude behavior toward his neighbors, Richard and Karen Kraft, appellees. Echard's behavior led the Krafts to file a common law nuisance claim against him. The sole issue to be decided in this appeal is whether Echard's unneighborly acts, either taken individually or collectively, constituted a common law nuisance under Maryland law. We shall hold that they did not.

I. BACKGROUND FACTS

Mary Katherine Echard, Echard's mother, owns a house situated on a small parcel of land located at 70 Southgate Avenue in Annapolis. Mrs. Echard and her son have lived at that location for many years. And, at all times here relevant, the appellees, Richard and Karen Kraft, lived next door.

Both Mrs. Echard's lot and the Krafts' lot are forty feet wide. The two houses are fifteen to twenty feet apart. Despite the close proximity of their homes, Echard and the Krafts enjoyed an amicable relationship up until March 2001, when Echard and his mother learned that the Krafts were going to build a fence along their common property line. The Krafts' proposed fence greatly angered Mrs. Echard and her son because both believed that the fence would interfere with Mrs. Echard's ability to use her driveway.

Mrs. Echard took legal action on March 5, 2001, in an attempt to have the city revoke the Krafts' fence permit. That action was unsuccessful, and the fence was built that same spring.

On February 26, 2002, Echard sued the Krafts in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County. He alleged that the Krafts had defamed him when they made statements to the Annapolis police concerning his words and actions after he learned where the fence was to be built. The Krafts filed a counterclaim against Echard, in which they alleged, inter alia, that Echard had interfered with the peaceful possession of their property.

The matter was tried before a jury. At the conclusion of the entire case, Echard, pro se, made a motion for judgment on the nuisance count. He maintained that the Krafts had failed to prove that he had created a nuisance. The trial judge denied Echard's motion. The jury returned a verdict against Echard on his defamation claim and found in favor of the Krafts on their nuisance claim. The jury awarded the Krafts $25,000 in damages. Echard filed an unsuccessful motion for new trial and then a timely appeal to this court.

II.

To decide the issue of whether the Krafts presented sufficient evidence to allow the jury to consider the common law nuisance claim, we shall focus, as the parties have done, on six separate incidents in which Echard's conduct was either rude or annoying, or both. The evidence will be set forth in the light most favorable to the Krafts, the parties who successfully opposed Echard's motion for judgment. Md. Rule 2-519(b). See also Pahanish v. Western Trails, Inc., 69 Md.App. 342, 353, 517 A.2d 1122 (1986).

A. The March 5, 2001, Incident

Echard found out on March 5, 2001, where the Krafts planned to build their fence. He was infuriated and immediately phoned Richard Kraft and asked him to come to his house so that they could discuss the issue. Mr. Kraft accommodated Echard by paying a visit. The visit was unpleasant. At one point, Echard inquired of his guest, "What kind of an asshole would do this?" He also insulted Mr. Kraft by calling him an "MF." Then, as Mr. Kraft was leaving, Echard warned: "You'd better not build that fence." He then said, "Or, better yet, go ahead [and build the fence]. The more damages, the better."

B. Echard's Springtime Trespass

The Krafts built their fence on the common property line between the Kraft and the Echard premises sometime during the spring of 2001. One day, when the fence was under construction—the date is not revealed in the record—Mrs. Kraft looked out her window and saw Echard on her property, talking to the workmen who were erecting the fence. Mrs. Kraft approached Echard and asked him to leave her yard and stop talking to the workmen. Echard "waived his hands at" Mrs. Kraft and said "that he needed to speak to the men that were erecting the fence." He also told Mrs. Kraft that what he said to the workmen was none of her business. Appellant did not leave when he was told to do so, which caused Mrs. Kraft to approach Echard once more. She again asked him to leave her property and told him that if he needed to speak to her about the fence, he should come to the front door and "ask to speak to me." She also told Echard not to come in her backyard again without permission and not to speak to the workmen. Echard then reiterated that what he had to say to the workers "was none of [her] business" and continued to talk to the workmen. Eventually, he left the Kraft property without incident.

C. Echard's Confrontation with the Krafts' Housekeeper

One day, again the exact date is not shown in the record, the Krafts' part-time housekeeper went outside to empty a small hand-held "Dust Buster." The housekeeper was banging the dust sack on a railing in order to empty it when Echard, who was standing on his property, waived his hands at the housekeeper and "yelled at her that she shouldn't be putting garbage and dust on his property." Echard's actions greatly upset the housekeeper, according to Mrs. Kraft's testimony.

D. Echard's Display of the Universal Sign of Disrespect

After the fence was erected, Echard and Mr. Kraft were walking out of their houses at the same time. Once again, the exact date is not shown in the record. After the two exchanged stares, Mr. Kraft gave a neighborly wave to Echard. He did this because he "didn't know really how he [Echard] was reacting to us any longer." He soon found out, because, in reply to the friendly wave, Echard gave what Mr. Kraft referred to a "very emphatic finger." Mr. Kraft then walked back into his home.

E. Echard's Nighttime Shouts

The Krafts sleep in a bedroom at the back of their dwelling, i.e., the side farthest from Southgate Avenue. On May 1, 2001, at approximately midnight, Mr. Kraft heard a noise at the front of his house. He got out of bed to investigate, went to the front of his residence, and looked out the window and saw Echard standing on the sidewalk staring at him. Echard next motioned with his arms, then shouted, "Come down here, come down here." Mr. Kraft responded by drawing down the window shade and returning to his bedroom. He then waited "to see if anything was going to happen." When nothing did happen, Mr. Kraft returned to the front of the house, looked out, and saw that Echard was no longer there.

F. Echard's Daytime Shouts

On another unspecified date, Mr. Kraft was having some work done on his house and was standing near a window looking outside when he saw Echard standing in his (Echard's) yard. Echard looked at Mr. Kraft and yelled, "What the hell are you looking at?" Echard next yelled, "Come down here, come down here." Mr. Kraft turned and walked away from his angry neighbor, but as he retreated, he heard Echard say, "Just let me see you somewhere."

III. ANALYSIS

Section 821D of the Restatement (Second) of Torts (1979) defines a private nuisance as "a nontrespassory invasion of another's interest in the private use and enjoyment of land." That definition has been adopted by the Maryland Court of Appeals. See Rosenblatt v. Exxon Company, 335 Md. 58, 80, 642 A.2d 180 (1994). Nevertheless, "[n]ot every interference with the use and enjoyment of land constitutes an actionable nuisance," inasmuch as the interference must be both substantial and unreasonable. Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission v. CAE-Link Corporation, 330 Md. 115, 125, 622 A.2d 745 (1993). "To be actionable `[t]he injury must be of such a character as to diminish materially the value of the property as a dwelling [or for the purpose] and seriously interfere with the ordinary comfort and enjoyment of it.'" Id. at 143, 622 A.2d 745 (citing Slaird v. Klewers, 260 Md. 2, 9, 271 A.2d 345 (1970)) (citing for additional support Stottlemyer v. Crampton, 235 Md. 138, 143-44, 200 A.2d 644 (1964); Bishop Processing Company v. Davis, 213 Md. 465, 472-74, 132 A.2d 445 (1957); Gorman v. Sabo, 210 Md. 155, 162-64, 122 A.2d 475 (1956); Five Oaks Corporation v. Gathmann, 190 Md. 348, 352-53, 58 A.2d 656 (1948); Meadowbrook Swimming Club, Inc. v. Albert, 173 Md. 641, 645, 197 A. 146 (1938)).

In WSSC v. CAE-Link Corp., the Court said that the foregoing standard could be understood by providing examples. 330 Md. at 144, 622 A.2d 745. One of the examples given was from the case of Bishop Processing Company v. Davis, 213 Md. 465, 132 A.2d 445 (1957). The Court in WSSC v. CAE-Link Corp. said:

Bishop's Processing Company involved a suit perpetually to enjoin the operator of a processing plant from maintaining and operating the plant so that the odors emanating from the plant interfered with the rightful use and enjoyment by the plaintiffs of their properties in the area. The evidence showed that the plaintiffs resided between one-half to one mile of the plant and that

...