## Facts

- Falloon owned a residence in a Kansas town adjoining Schilling’s lot.
- Schilling constructed several small, inexpensive two-room dwellings on his land and rented them primarily to Black families.
- Falloon sought to enjoin the construction and rentals, alleging the dwellings’ character and the tenants’ presence diminished his property’s value and enjoyment.
- Falloon also alleged Schilling acted out of spite and intended to injure him.
- Evidence showed the tenants were well-behaved and the use did not produce unusual noise, filth, disorder, or other physical disturbances beyond ordinary residential living.

## Issues

1. Whether the race, color, or perceived social undesirability of tenants, combined with the construction of inexpensive dwellings, can constitute a private nuisance to adjoining property.
2. Whether a spiteful or malicious motive can convert an otherwise lawful, ordinary residential use of land into a nuisance warranting injunctive relief.

## Decision

- The Kansas Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s denial of injunctive relief.
- The court held that renting homes to well-behaved tenants is not a nuisance merely because neighbors find the tenants socially objectionable or because the tenants are Black.
- The court held that an owner’s bad motive alone does not make an otherwise lawful residential use a nuisance absent substantial, concrete interference.

## Legal Principles

- Private nuisance requires a substantial and unreasonable interference with the use and enjoyment of land, typically shown through objective harms (e.g., noise, odors, filth, danger, or disorder).
- The race, color, or social status of occupants is not, by itself, a legally cognizable basis for nuisance.
- A lawful and ordinary use of one’s land does not become a nuisance solely because the actor may have an improper or spiteful motive; motive cannot replace proof of actionable interference.

## Conclusion

The court refused to treat racial or social objections to neighbors as nuisance and declined to enjoin a lawful residential rental use absent evidence of substantial, objective interference with the adjoining owner’s use and enjoyment of property.


Falloon v. Schilling, 29 Kan. 292 (Kan. 1883)