Opinion ID: 2161455
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Private Relief from a Public Nuisance.

Text: The posts being in a public alleyway, they clearly constitute a public nuisance. Smith v. Jefferson (1959), 8 Wis. (2d) 378, 383, 99 N. W. (2d) 119; Walley v. Patake (1956), 271 Wis. 530, 541, 74 N. W. (2d) 130; Smith v. Congregation of St. Rose (1953), 265 Wis. 393, 400, 61 N. W. (2d) 896; State v. Carpenter (1887), 68 Wis. 165, 173, 31 N. W. 730. Does the fact that this nuisance is primarily a public one foreclose the plaintiffs as private individuals from obtaining injunctive relief? As long ago as Ryan v. Schwartz (1896), 94 Wis. 403, 69 N. W. 178, we held that owners of property abutting a highway may properly maintain an action to abate a nuisance which obstructs the street. See Costas v. Fond du Lac (1964), 24 Wis. (2d) 409, 414, 129 N. W. (2d) 217; Kamke v. Clark (1955), 268 Wis. 465, 478, 67 N. W. (2d) 841, 68 N. W. (2d) 727. See also secs. 280.01, 280.02, and 280.03, Stats. In Mitchell Realty Co. v. West Allis (1924), 184 Wis. 352, 372, 199 N. W. 390, this court said: . . . a nuisance may be both public and private, and . . . a public nuisance may also become a private nuisance as to any person who is especially injured by it to any extent beyond the injury to the public. We believe that the interjection of the posts in the public alleyway adjacent to the appellant's property, which is being used as a gasoline station, could properly be held to cause a special injury to the Hutts. As to them, the public nuisance is also a private nuisance.