NUISANCE
NUISANCE, crim. law, torts. This word means literally annoyance; in law, it signifies, according to Blackstone, " anything that worketh hurt, inconvenience, or damage." 3 Comm. 216.
2. Nuisances are either public or com- mon, or private nuisances.
3.-1. A public or common nuisance is such an inconvenience or troublesome offence, as annoys the whole community in general, and not merely some particular person. 1 Hawk. P. C. 197; 4 Bl. Com. 166-7. To constitute a Public nuisance, there must be such 'a number of persons annoyed, that the offence can no longer be considered a private nuisance: this is a fact, generally, to be judged of by the jury. 1 .Burr. 337; 4 Esp. C. 200; 1 Str. 686, 704; 2 Chit. Cr. Law, 607, n. It is diffi- cult to define what degree of annoyance is necessary to constitute a nuisance. In rela- tion to offensive trades, it seems that when such a trade renders the enjoyment of life and property uncomfortable, it is a nuisance; 1 Burr. 333; 4 Rog. Rec. 87; 5 Esp. C. 217; for the neighborhood have a right to pure and fresh air. 2 Car. & P. 485; S. C. 12 E. C. L. R. 226; 6 Rogers' Rec. 61.
4. A thing may be a nuisance in one place, which-is not so in another; therefore the situation or locality of the nuisance must be considered. A tallow chandler seeing up his baseness among other tallow chandlers, and increasing the noxious smells of the neighborhood, is not guilty of setting up a nuisance, unless the annoyance is much increased by the new manufactory. Peake's Cas. 91. Such an establishment might be a nuisance-in a thickly populated town of merchants and mechanics, where Do such business was carried on.
5. Public nuisances arise in consequence of following particular trades, by which the air-is rendered offensive and noxious. Cro. Car. 510; Hawk. B. 1, c. 755 s. 10; 2 Ld. Raym. 1163; 1 Burr. 333; 1 Str. 686. From-acts of public indecency; as bathing in a public river, in sight of the neighbor- ing houses; 1 Russ. Cr. 302; 2 Campb. R. 89; Sid. 168; or for acts tending to a breach of the public peace, as for drawing a number of persons into a field for the pur- pose of pigeon-shooting, to the disturbance of the neighborhood; 3 B. & A. 184; S. C. 23 Eng. C. L. R. 52; or keeping a dis- orderly house; 1 Russ. Cr. 298; or a gaming house; 1 Russ. Cr. 299; Hawk . b. 1, c. 7 5, s. 6; or a bawdy house; Hawk. b. 1, c. 74, s. 1; Bac. Ab. Nuisance, A; 9 Conn. R. 350; or a dangerous animal, known to be such, and suffering him to go at large, as a large bull-dog accustomed to bite people; 4 Burn's, Just. 678; or exposing a person having a contagious disease, as the small- pox, in public; 4 M. & S. 73, 272; and the like.
6.-2. A private nuisance is anything done to the hurt or annoyance of the lands, tenements, or hereditaments of another. 3 Bl. Com. 1215; Finch, L. 188.
7. These are such as are injurious to corporeal inheritance's; as, for example, if a man should build his house so as to throw the rain water which fell on it, on my land; F. N. B. 184; or erect his. building, with- out right, so as to obstruct my ancient lights; 9 Co. 58; keep hogs or other ani- mals so as to incommode his neighor and render the air unwholesome. 9 Co. 58.
8. Private nuisances may also be in- jurious to incorporeal hereditaments. If, for example, I have a way annexed to my estate, across another man's land, and he obstruct me in the use of it, by plowing it up, or laying logs across it, and the like. F. N. B. 183; 2 Roll. Ab. 140.
9. The remedies for a public nuisance are by indicting the party. Vide, generally, Com. Dig. Action on the case for a nuisance; Bac. Ab. h. t.; Vin. Ab. h. t.; Nels. Ab. h. t.; Selw. N. P. h. t.; 3 Bl. Com. c. 13 Russ. Cr. b. 2, c. 30; 1 0 Mass. R. 72 7 Pick. R. 76; 1 Root's Rep. 129; 1 John. R. 78; 1 S. & R. 219; 3 Yeates' R. 447; 3 Amer. Jurist, 85; 3 Harr. & McH. 441; Rose. Cr. Ev. h. t.; Chit. Cr. L. Index, b. t.; Chit. Pr. Index, b. t., and vol. 1, p. 383; Bouv. Inst. Index, h. t.