nuisance

Nuisance signifies the right of quiet enjoyment being disrupted to such a degree that in law, a tort is being committed. Traditionally, nuisance is divided into public nuisance, interference with the reasonable expectations and rights of the general public, and private nuisance, the interference with the right of specific people. Nuisance is any conduct that interferes and obstructs with the convenience and comfort of another person in the exercise of the use and enjoyment of land or a right attached to it. Helios Towers Ltd. v. Bello (2017) 3 NWLR (Pt. 1551) 93.

The whole aim of nuisance is to protect one’s right to peaceful enjoyment of property and damages to that right. The law of private nuisance is designed to protect the individual owner or occupier of land from substantial interference with his enjoyment thereof. Helios Towers Ltd. v. Bello (2017) 3 NWLR (Pt. 1551) 93.

Liability rests primarily on the person who authorizes the nuisance. Where the occupier of the premises knowingly or carelessly permits the state of affairs that gives rise to nuisance, he may also be liable. Sedleigh-Denfield v. O’Callaghan (1940) AC 880.

The personal element in nuisance can only ascribe to plaintiffs a common wrong and not a common right, so they could not bring a representative action. Interland Transport Ltd. J. A. Adediran & Ors. (1986) 2 CA 18.

The tort of nuisance is not actionable per se. The plaintiff must always prove that he suffered some form of damage from the action or inaction of the defendant.

The following are the circumstances where damage is strict and requires no proof in the tort of nuisance:

• a. Where the facts are overwhelming, damage is readily presumed.
• b. Where the defendant interferes with an easement or right of way and access of the plaintiff, the court will presume that the plaintiff has suffered damage.
• c. An injunction may be granted in an action where harm to the plaintiff is reasonably feared to be imminent though none has actually occurred.

Public nuisance is the nuisance which is an interference with, disturbance of, or annoyance to a person in the exercise or enjoyment of a right belonging to him as a member of the public. Private nuisance occurs when the ownership or occupation of land or some easement, profit, or other right used or enjoyed in connection with a land by a person is disturbed. Helios Towers Ltd. v. Bello (2017) 3 NWLR (Pt. 1551) 93.

Private nuisance is divided into three categories. They are:

• a. Physical injury to the plaintiff’s property.
• b. Substantial interference with the plaintiff’s use and enjoyment of his land.
• c. Interference with the easements and profits.

An action for private nuisance is available to any person who has an interest in land, the enjoyment of which is detrimentally affected. An action for nuisance is available to a person who has or uses the land, or has an interest in the land, an occupier of the land and a person with reversionary interest in the land where his reversionary interest is being or has been interfered with.

The persons who can be sued for the tort of nuisance include the following:

• a. The creator of the nuisance.
• b. The Landlord.
• c. An occupier.

The defendant has a range of means of defense in a claim for nuisance against him in an action. The following defences may be available to the defendant in a claim against him for nuisance:

• a. Reasonableness of his act or omission: The defendant may aver that the act of nuisance was a normal and reasonable act to be expected in the circumstance in the vicinity at that period of time.
• b. Statutory authority: Where a land has been earmarked for a purpose by statutory authority, carrying out such order will be a defense under statutory authority, especially when the defendant is not negligent in carrying out the order.
• c. Act of God: A defendant can plead that the act of nuisance complained of happened as a result of the act of God, of natural causes without human intervention.
• d. Acts of a stranger: An act of a stranger is a good defense if it is shown that the defendant has taken steps to discontinue the effect of the strangers act immediately the act came within his knowledge.
• e. Consent: Where a defendant acted within the terms of agreement and has been reasonable in his act, he can plead.