👀
Torts • Public Nuisance
TORT#063
Legal Definition
A public nuisance is an act that unreasonably interferes with the health, safety, or property rights of the community, or violates a statute, ordinance, or regulation. An action for public nuisance may be brought by either a public agency, or a private party who suffers harm that is a different kind than the general harm suffered by the public.
Plain English Explanation
People are generally free to act and do as they please so long as it doesn't harm others, or unreasonably interfere with other people enjoying life. Such a harm or interference is known as a nuisance. A nuisance that causes harm to an individual or small part of the community is a private nuisance, while a nuisance that causes harm to the entire community is a public nuisance. A common example of a public nuisance is pollution.
Imagine a coal fired power plant, spewing a large plume of smoke out of its smokestack. The power plant provides a lot of value to the community in the form of electricity, but it also arguably has negative aspects. For example, properties closer to the power plant would likely have lower property values, because fewer people would be interested in buying a house next to it. Moreover, the power plant poses health and safety risks of some level due to the gasses it releases into the air. With this in mind, who has the right to bring an action against the power plant under public nuisance?
Generally, only a public agency has the right to bring such an action against the power plant because it falls within the public agency's duty in representing the community. For example, a public agency may find that the community—as a whole—no longer values the benefit of the power plant more than the negative consequences. Or perhaps the public agency wants to force the power plant to implement new safety measures (and costs) to reduce the size of the public nuisance it causes.
However, in certain cases, the law will allow a private party to bring an action for a public nuisance if that private party can show that their harm is different in kind than the general harm that everyone else is dealing with. For example, most people in a community would likely prefer not to be breathing in air that has been polluted by the power plant, but since it is a harm that they all experience, they have no right to sue the power plant (the law, instead, expects them to bring it to the attention of a public agency). However, if one of the people in the community owns a corn farm and, due to the pollution, their entire crop dies, they have experienced a different harm that is worthy of attention from the court.
Imagine a coal fired power plant, spewing a large plume of smoke out of its smokestack. The power plant provides a lot of value to the community in the form of electricity, but it also arguably has negative aspects. For example, properties closer to the power plant would likely have lower property values, because fewer people would be interested in buying a house next to it. Moreover, the power plant poses health and safety risks of some level due to the gasses it releases into the air. With this in mind, who has the right to bring an action against the power plant under public nuisance?
Generally, only a public agency has the right to bring such an action against the power plant because it falls within the public agency's duty in representing the community. For example, a public agency may find that the community—as a whole—no longer values the benefit of the power plant more than the negative consequences. Or perhaps the public agency wants to force the power plant to implement new safety measures (and costs) to reduce the size of the public nuisance it causes.
However, in certain cases, the law will allow a private party to bring an action for a public nuisance if that private party can show that their harm is different in kind than the general harm that everyone else is dealing with. For example, most people in a community would likely prefer not to be breathing in air that has been polluted by the power plant, but since it is a harm that they all experience, they have no right to sue the power plant (the law, instead, expects them to bring it to the attention of a public agency). However, if one of the people in the community owns a corn farm and, due to the pollution, their entire crop dies, they have experienced a different harm that is worthy of attention from the court.
Visual Aids
