Peden v. Furman University

• Decision Date: 19 February 1930
• Docket Number: 12836.
• Citation: 151 S.E. 907,155 S.C. 1
• Parties: PEDEN v. FURMAN UNIVERSITY et al.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

151 S.E. 907

155 S.C. 1

PEDEN v. FURMAN UNIVERSITY et al.

No. 12836.

Supreme Court of South Carolina

February 19, 1930

Appeal from Common Pleas Circuit Court of Greenville County; M. L Bonham, Judge.

Action by J. R. Peden against the Furman University and another. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiff appeals.

Reversed and remanded for new trial.

The complaint and answers ordered to be reported follow:

Complaint.

1. At the times hereinafter mentioned plaintiff, J. R. Peden, was the owner of a lot of land in the City of Greenville, South Carolina, having a frontage on Thruston Street of 139 1/2 feet and a depth on Nona Street of 210 feet. It adjoins the campus of defendant Furman University, and is considered highly desirable on account of its cultured and quiet environment. The plaintiff has three cottages on the lot which were in demand as places of residence.

2. The defendant, Furman University, is an eleemosynary corporation of South Carolina, conducting a university for young men. Its campus contains many acres of land in which are growing magnificent trees of hardwood. At intervals the defendant has caused to be erected halls and dormitories and other buildings of a pretentious kind, all devoted to educational purposes. The property represents a value of hundreds of thousands of dollars, all of which has been exempt from taxes, because of the fact that defendant claims to be engaged exclusively in conducting an educational institution.

3. The defendant, Greenville Baseball Association, is a corporation under the laws of South Carolina, organized for the purpose of conducting professional baseball in the City of Greenville. It is operated for profit.

4. On or about the 10th day of January, 1925, defendant, Furman University, leased to defendant, Greenville Baseball Association, the ground known as ""Graham Field," which is a lot situated on Augusta Street, in the City of Greenville, adjoining plaintiff's property at an annual rental unknown to this plaintiff. Plaintiff is informed and believes that the amount is considerable and that the transaction has nothing to do with the cause of education, nor is it within the powers granted to the defendant, Furman University, by its charter. The purpose of the Greenville Baseball Association in obtaining Graham Field was, and still is, to hold its baseball games therein charging the public admissions therefor. Plaintiff is informed and believes that the rental collected by Furman University is derived entirely from gate receipts of the said Graham Field and it is, therefore, indirectly operating a ball park, contrary to the terms of it charter and engaging in a private business.

5. Plaintiff alleges that the said Graham Field is not large enough for a baseball park. Balls are frequently batted or knocked by the players on the premises of the plaintiff. This has continued for months and has caused damages to plaintiff and to his tenants, in that trespasses have been committed, fences have been torn down, yards and gardens trampled by employees of the Greenville Baseball Association and persons there to see the games, and otherwise made the conditions so unbearable that plaintiff could not reside in his own residence with any degree of peace and comfort and was compelled to move on account of said causes and could not rent houses or find tenants who would live therein. Frequently the parking of cars on both sides of the street is in such numbers as to leave only a narrow alley between. On the side of the street next to the plaintiff's residence on many occasions cars have been so close together as to prevent the plaintiff from gaining entrance to his lot on Thruston Street. Plaintiff has lost his tenants and when plaintiff is absent people unknown to him trespass upon his land for the purpose of seeing the baseball games. They have climbed upon the houses and torn shingles from the roof endeavoring to obtain points of vantage. They have broken out the window panes and generally damaged the houses.

6. Plaintiff alleges that the baseball games draw to the neighborhood of his property, many afternoons during the year, a large crowd of men, women, boys and girls, hundreds of whom are in motor cars that are parked in all the streets in the vicinity, blocking traffic, making disagreeable and unhealthy noises and smoke, emitting deadly fumes of gas and generally disturbing the quiet of the neighborhood. These crowds are brought there by the leasing of the said Graham Field by Furman University and with the other acts complained of constitute a nuisance which is working irreparable injury to the plaintiff's property.

7. In addition to operating the said Graham Field as a baseball park, the defendant, Furman University, also operates and uses Graham Field for football practice grounds. The students of Furman University, in September, 1926, engaged in practice at football several times a week and in said month on one occasion they kicked the ball over the fence onto plaintiff's property. One of said students, without permission, went upon the premises to look for the ball. He was asked to leave. The following day one of said students came to the house of plaintiff and told plaintiff's son, who is blind, that plaintiff had better keep on friendly terms with the university students or some day he would return and find nothing there but the bushes. Other threats have been made against the plaintiff. When plaintiff passes Furman University campus he is frequently received with jeers and derisive remarks from the students to such an extent that he is humiliated and annoyed. On several occasions the plaintiff's wife and son were with him. Plaintiff has appealed to the Chief of Police of Greenville County and to the Sheriff for protection against trespassers, parking of cars and disorderly conduct in the particulars hereinabove specified, but he has not been able to obtain redress.

8. Plaintiff alleges that notwithstanding defendant, Furman University, has a large campus which is suitable for practicing games and athletic sports, it permits its students to use said Graham Field for running and other track purposes. The students go from the university buildings past the plaintiff's house, often wearing only one garment, namely, a short pair of trunks made of white cotton cloth and coming just below the loins, leaving the entire lower part of the body, waist and legs bare. Plaintiff alleges that this exposure of their persons is contrary to the city ordinances and State laws and offends the members of his family and other people in the neighborhood. The use of the field in this manner by permission of Furman University is unlawful, and constitutes a nuisance. Plaintiff and his neighbors are thus suffering all sorts of inconvenience, annoyances, noises, insulting remarks, having their streets blocked, their passage across the streets made hazardous and dangerous, and the plaintiff and his family are generally made to suffer from conditions which did not exist when Furman University became the owner of said Graham Field and when it permitted and authorized the uses and practices which now prevail.

9. Plaintiff alleges that the defendant, Furman University, operates a so-called baseball park, when it is not large enough for the purpose, in that baseballs are knocked frequently into the premises of plaintiff, constituting a nuisance in itself. He further alleges that it is beyond the power of Furman University, under its charter, to operate any baseball park, especially in the manner in which it is conducted, and he is advised that he is entitled to damages and a perpetual injunction restraining the further use of the park for athletic purposes. It has caused great damage to plaintiff's property, in that he cannot sell it.

Plaintiff alleges that he has been damaged in the sum of $5,000.00 by Furman University because of the acts complained of.

Wherefore, plaintiff prays judgment against the defendant, Furman University, for damages in the sum of $5,000.00, and against Furman University and against Greenville Baseball Association for an order perpetually restraining and enjoining them from using said Graham Field for baseball, football, track meets or any other athletic or sport purposes.

Answer of Furman University.

Furman University, answering the complaint herein, alleges:

1. That the lot of land referred to in the fourth paragraph of the complaint was purchased by Furman University with the purpose to use the same as an athletic field for its students; that said lot was in a very rough, unimproved state and was unsightly; that to put it in proper condition so as to fit it for an athletic field required the expenditure of many thousands of dollars and that this defendant being without necessary funds which it could appropriate to said purpose, accepted a proposition from the Municipal Athletic Corporation, a corporation composed of some of the very best of our citizens and organized for the purpose of promoting clean sports in this county, and said Municipal Athletic Corporation (which will hereafter be referred to as the Association) entered into an agreement whereby this defendant demised said premises to said Association for a term of years ending September 15th, 1934, and that said Association agreed to expend not less than twenty-two thousand, five hundred ($22,500.00) dollars in grading and improving said premises and erecting a grandstand, club houses and fences and undertook to keep the same in good condition during said period; that said agreement further stipulated that said Association might lease the said premises to the Greenville Baseball Club for league baseball during the baseball season and spring practice, but that this defendant should have the use...