ABATEMENT OF NUISANCES

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ABATEMENT OF NUISANCES


ABATEMENT OF NUISANCES is the prostration or removal of a nuisance. 3 Bl. 2.-1. Who may abate a nuisance; 2, the manner of abating it. (1.)Who may abate a nuisance. (1.) Any person may abate a public nuisance. 2Salk. 458; 9 Co. 454. 3.-(2.) The injured party may abate a private nuisance, which iscreated by an act of commission, without notice to the person who hascommitted it; but there is no case which sanctions the abatement by anindividual of nuisances from omission, except that of cutting branches oftrees which overhang a public road, or the private property of the personwho cuts them. 4.-2. The manner of abating it. (1.) A public nuisance may be abatedwithout notice, 2 Salk. 458; and so may a private nuisance which arises byan act of commission. And, when the security of lives or property mayrequire so speedy a remedy as not to allow time to call on the person onwhose property the mischief has arisen to remedy it, an individual would bejustified in abating a nuisance from omission without notice. 2 Barn. &Cres. 311; 3 Dowl. & R. 556. 5.-(2.) In the abatement of a public nuisance, the abator need notobserve particular care in abating it, so as to prevent injury to thematerials. And though a gate illegally fastened, might have been openedwithout cutting it down, yet the cutting would be lawful. However, it is ageneral rule that the abatement must be limited by its necessity, and nowanton or unnecessary injury must be committed. 2 Salk. 458. 6.-3. As to private nuisances, it has been held, that if a man in hisown soil erect a thing which is a nuisance to another, as by stopping arivulet, and so diminishing the water used by the latter for his cattle, theparty injured may enter on the soil of the other, and abate the nuisance andjustify the trespass; and this right of abatement is not confined merely toa house, mill, or land. 2 Smith's Rep. 9; 2 Roll. Abr. 565; 2 Leon. 202;Com. Dig. Pleader, 3 M. 42; 3 Lev. 92; 1 Brownl. 212; Vin. Ab. Nuisance; 12Mass. 420; 9 Mass. 316; 4 Conn. 418; 5 Conn. 210; 1 Esp. 679; 3 Taunt. 99; 6Bing. 379. 7.-4. The abator of a private nuisance cannot remove the materialsfurther than is necessary, nor convert them to his own use. Dalt. o. 50.And so much only of the thing as causes the nuisance should be removed; asif a house be built too high, so much. only as is too high should be pulleddown. 9 Co. 53; God. 221; Str. 686. 8.-5. If the nuisance can be removed without destruction anddelivered to a magistrate, it is advisable to do so; as in the case of alibellous print or paper affecting an individual, but still it may bedestroyed 5 Co. 125, b.; 2 Campb. 511. See as to cutting down trees, Roll.Rep. 394; 3 Buls 198; Vin. Ab. tit. Trees, E, and Nuisance W.

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