## Facts

- A gas company operated gas works in a thickly settled residential portion of a village and stored naphtha for manufacturing gas.
- A nearby homeowner experienced persistent fumes and strong odors from the works.
- The emissions were found to be noxious and offensive, interfering with the homeowner’s comfortable use of his residence and making it less desirable as a home.
- The homeowner sued for private nuisance, seeking damages and an injunction against continued operation causing the odors.
- The company admitted operating the plant but denied negligence and denied that its operation was unlawful or unreasonable.

## Issues

1. Whether a lawfully operated, socially useful gas plant may constitute a private nuisance when it emits persistent offensive odors and fumes that materially interfere with a neighbor’s use and enjoyment of property.
2. Whether nuisance liability in this setting requires proof of negligence or improper operation.
3. Whether damages and injunctive relief are proper remedies for a continuing nuisance based on ongoing emissions.

## Decision

- The court affirmed judgment for the homeowner.
- The emissions constituted a private nuisance because they substantially and continuously interfered with the reasonable, comfortable enjoyment of the home.
- The lawful and beneficial character of the business did not bar nuisance liability.
- The court upheld both compensatory damages for past harm and an injunction to restrain continued operation causing the offensive conditions.

## Legal Principles

- A lawful and useful enterprise may be a private nuisance if its operation causes substantial, ongoing, and unreasonable interference with neighboring property rights.
- Nuisance liability may be imposed without showing negligence; the focus is the character, degree, and continuity of the interference, not the operator’s care.
- Locality matters: activity that may be tolerable in an industrial area can be unreasonable in a densely settled residential neighborhood.
- For a continuing nuisance, damages may compensate past injury, and equitable relief may issue when monetary relief is inadequate to prevent ongoing harm.

## Conclusion

The court held that persistent noxious odors and vapors from a gas works in a residential area amounted to a private nuisance despite careful, lawful operation, and it affirmed damages and an injunction to protect the neighboring homeowner’s use and enjoyment of property.


Bohan v. Port Jervis Gas-Light Co., 122 N.Y. 18, 25 N.E. 246 (N.Y. 1890)