ILLUSTIATION BY ROB BUGG
Your Right to
Peace and Quiet
The noisy and the nosey are becoming
more numerous in our society, but the
courts stand ready to protect you
By GEORGE WEINSTEIN
IN white plains, N.Y., an irate citi
zenry, fed up with motorists who
lean on their horns in traffic jams or
toot them instead of ringing doorbells,
asked the city council to crack down.
Blow your horn unnecessarily in White
Plains today, and it may cost you $10.
The next target: power mowers and
other noisy gardening gadgets.
It's the same everywhere. Enemies of peace
and quiet blaring hi-fi's, flashing billboards,
drive-in movies, pungent pizza shops, telephone
pitchmen, jangling ice-cream wagons, and a
growing conglomeration of others assail us
from all sides and at all hours.
Can you get relief? Yes. The law will gener
ally recognize your right to peace and quiet
and privacy but very often you have to put up
a fight for it.
Take barking dogs, for example. In Pennsyl
vania, a dog got lonely every time his owners left
the house and kept barking until they returned.
That could be for hours at a time, day or night.
After six months of protesting, next-door neigh
bors sued. The judge ordered the owners to
"abate the nuisance," then suggested a way to
do it: take the dog along with them.
In another nuisance case, a woman who loved
to play the marimba hammered away at it from
nine in the morning until bedtime, day after day.
When the neighbors began to kick, she retaliated
by serenading several of them every time they
COVER:
came and went. A Mr. Kelly got "When Irish
Eyes Are Smiling"; a naval officer, "Anchors
Aweigh"; an elderly woman, "Little Old Lady."
The courts finally put the quietus on her but
made some allowance for her devotion to her art.
She was permitted to play for no more than an
hour at a time and for no more than three hours
a day but no serenades. These were specifically
forbidden by name in the court order.
What about noisy neighbors in general? You
usually have to put up with them. If their noise
is habitual, you can ask the police for help, but
they usually steer clear of quarrels between
neighbors unless some law is violated. And with
complaints about fans or air conditioners that
run all night, you will get nowhere.
You have a better chance against bothersome
commercial enterprises. In a Pennsylvania case,
the gun play, singing, and other sounds of a
drive-in movie reverberated through a residen
tial area until 1 :30 every morning. After re
peated warnings, the court ordered it closed.
Even if the enterprise is essential, it must not
operate in a disturbing manner. A neighbor
hood bakery in New Jersey, whose business ex
panded, started to bake bread at night. Neigh
bors soon began to complain about rattling trays,
mixing machines, and other noises that kept them
awake. The bakery said these noises were un
avoidable. The court thought otherwise. The bak
ery then found it could eliminate them.
Factory whistles, construction begun at 6 a.m.,
and other unreasonably early or late activities
have been ruled nuisances at various times.
So have night baseball games, used-car lots,
and flashing billboards whose lights have kept
people awake. In one such case, a shoe store kept
a row of lights on every night. They shone di
rectly into the bedroom of the house next door.
A judge ordered them doused and awarded the
occupants damages for their lost sleep.
You don't have to put up with persistent and
obnoxious smells, either. For several months, a
Maryland homeowner and his wife frequently
woke up nauseated by the pungent odor of as
phalt mixture. It came from a corner lot next
to their home where several asphalt-carrying
trucks were parked nightly.
When the truck Owner said he had no oth
er place to keep the trucks, the suffering
couple went to court and got an injunction. And
in West Virginia, when a feuding housewife
made a steady practice of frying onions and di
recting the odors at a neighbor down the hall,
she was ordered to cease and desist.
Another of your rights under constant attack
that of privacy is getting firm legal support.
In one case, an insurance company hired two de
tectives to disprove a claim for injuries. They
trailed the man making the claim, took pictures,
and watched him through binoculars. They even
crept up to his house and spied on him through
his windows. The claimant filed suit, charging
violation of his right to be left alone. He collected.
Yes, you and your neighbor do have a right
to privacy, peace, and quiet. And in these days
of growing encroachments from all sides, it's
good to know that the law guarantees that right
Dad and his eager young brood
are carting home the big prize
a freshly cut evergreen for the
Christmas holidays. Fred Sieb
caught their moment of triumph.
Family IV&isJcly
December 15, 1963
IIONMO S. DAVIDOW rmidnit and PMMrr
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