## Facts

- Defendants purchased 160 acres in rural Kendall County, Illinois in 1991 and began operating a cattle farm in March 1992.
- Across the road, a farmhouse on a larger tract was occupied by a tenant until December 1991, after which it remained vacant.
- In 1998, the neighboring owner subdivided and conveyed a 1.83-acre parcel (including the former farmhouse site) to plaintiffs.
- Plaintiffs demolished the farmhouse and constructed a new residence on the site; they moved in around 2004 after delays, including concern about living near a cattle farm.
- In 2007, plaintiffs sued for private nuisance, alleging the cattle operation produced excessive flies interfering with their use and enjoyment of their property; they sought injunctive relief and did not plead negligent operation.
- Defendants asserted the Illinois Farm Nuisance Suit Act barred the claim because the farm predated plaintiffs’ ownership by more than one year and was not a nuisance when it began.

## Issues

1. Whether the Illinois Farm Nuisance Suit Act bars a nuisance action by plaintiffs who acquired property rights more than one year after a farm began operating, where the alleged nuisance stems from the ongoing farm operation and the surrounding-area change is the plaintiffs’ later residential use.

## Decision

- The Illinois Supreme Court reversed the appellate and circuit court judgments.
- The court held the Farm Nuisance Suit Act barred plaintiffs’ nuisance claim because the cattle farm operated for more than one year before plaintiffs acquired their parcel and began residential use.
- The cause was remanded for further proceedings consistent with the Act’s bar.

## Legal Principles

- Under the Illinois Farm Nuisance Suit Act, a farm that has operated for more than one year and was not a nuisance when it began shall not be or become a nuisance due to changed conditions in the surrounding area.
- The relevant “changed conditions” analysis focuses on when the current claimant acquired property rights and created or renewed nearby nonagricultural use, not on historical use by prior owners or tenants.
- The Act functions as a statutory “coming to the nuisance” bar for later-arriving neighbors who complain about ordinary effects of an established farm absent a showing the farm was a nuisance at inception.

## Conclusion

Because plaintiffs acquired and developed their residential parcel years after the cattle operation began and after the Act’s one-year protection attached, their nuisance action based on flies allegedly generated by the existing farm was barred by the Illinois Farm Nuisance Suit Act.


Toftoy v. Rosenwinkel, 983 N.E.2d 463 (Ill. 2012)