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Public Nuisance




Private Nuisance





Legal Responsibility





The following are factors to be considered:

  • Extent and duration of the disturbance;
  • Nature of the harm;
  • Burden to the plaintiff in preventing the harm;
  • Motivation of the defendant;
  • Feasibility of the defendant's mitigating or preventing the harm;










Further readings








Land-Use Control; Tort Law.


n. the unreasonable, unwarranted and/or unlawful use of property, which causes inconvenience or damage to others, either to individuals and/or to the general public. Nuisances can include noxious smells, noise, burning, misdirection of water on to other property, illegal gambling, unauthorized collections of rusting autos, indecent signs and pictures on businesses, and a host of bothersome activities. Where illegal they can be abated (changed, repaired, or improved) by criminal or quasi-criminal charges. If a nuisance interferes with another person's quiet or peaceful or pleasant use of his/her property, it may be the basis for a lawsuit for damages and/or an injunction ordering the person or entity causing the nuisance to desist (stop) or limit the activity (such as closing down an activity in the evening). (See: public nuisance, private nuisance)


noun affliction, aggravation, annoyance, anxiety, bedevilment, bother, burden, cause of distress, devilment, difficult situation, difficulty, discomfort, disturbance, grievance, handicap, harassment, hardship, hindrance, imposition, inconvenience, infliction, infringement, injurious interference, interference, intrusion, irritation, molestation, obstacle, ordeal, pain, pest, plague, problem, scourge, trial, trouble, unlawful obbtruction, unwarrantable intrusion, vexation, worry
Associated concepts: abatement of a nuisance, attractive nuisance, common nuisance, continuing nuisance, nuiiance at law, nuisance in fact, nuisance per se, public nuisance
Foreign phrases: Aedificare in tuo proprio solo non licet quod alteri noceat.It is not lawful to build upon one's own land what may injure another.
See also: aggravation, disadvantage, mischief, molestation


the tort or delict of wrongful conduct by the defendant - usually of the defendant's own land - which affects the claimant's use of his (the claimant's) land. In England a public nuisance may be a crime. The core concept involves a continuing interference or harm but single instances have been held enough to prevent repetition.

It is largely a matter of fact and degree, depending upon the circumstances of the case, whether or not a nuisance has been or is being committed: ‘Things which are forbidden in a crowded urban community may be permitted in the country. What is prohibited in an enclosed land maybe tolerated in the open’. Injunction in England or interdict in Scotland will be granted to prevent a nuisance being continued or repeated and damages will be granted in respect of loss caused by it. Here the laws of England and Scotland diverge.

The law of England distinguishes between public and private nuisance. A public nuisance is one that affects a particular class or group of citizens. The conduct must be such as materially affects the complainer. No one can complain of a public nuisance if he is not himself able to allege and prove some special or particular damage over and above that of the ordinary public. Thus, a hole in the road would not be actionable under this head but it would become so if someone fell into it and broke a leg. Private nuisance, in its pure form, happens when someone interferes with another's use or enjoyment of land. This is a simple matter of balance, depending on the locality. In modern times, planning legislation has had a tremendous impact on such cases, preventing as it does certain excesses. In English law, nuisance provides the remedy for infringement of a land law servitude. A plaintiff must own or have an interest in the land in question, thus depriving the visitor of a right in private nuisance for personal injury. Generally, in England, it is thought that the standard of care is strict. However, it may well be the case that different considerations apply where the remedy is for injunction as opposed to when it is for damages. When restraining conduct, the court is more likely to take the view that if a plaintiff is suffering more than it is reasonable that he should suffer, that he be entitled to injunction. When seeking damages the courts may want to look for some blameworthy conduct, but the English law has not made this distinction firm, and it is probably still the case that liability is strict. The significance of this is that a plaintiff in England is better served by trying to make out a claim in nuisance instead of negligence, assuming the conduct is of a kind that constitutes a nuisance. In particular, the harm must usually be a continuing one.

In Scotland there is no distinction between public and private nuisance. In Scotland there will be no liability for damages without proof of fault although in most cases that would be called nuisance there will be an almost irresistible inference of fault. Scots law remains very similar to the English law where the remedy sought is interdict (the Scots equivalent of injunction), the courts will restrain any use of land that results in unreasonable inconvenience to another.

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.
     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 difficult to define what degree of annoyance is necessary to constitute a nuisance. In relation 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 neighboring 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 purpose of pigeon-shooting, to the disturbance of the neighborhood; 3 B. & A. 184; S. C. 23 Eng. C. L. R. 52; or keeping a disorderly 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, without right, so as to obstruct my ancient lights; 9 Co. 58; keep hogs or other animals so as to incommode his neighbor and render the air unwholesome. 9 Co. 58.
     8. Private nuisances may also be injurious 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.