120 Wash. 327 | Wash. | 1922
—This action was brought to restrain the operation of a slaughter house, plaintiffs claiming that it constituted a nuisance. The trial before the court without a jury resulted in a judgment dismissing the action. From this judgment, the plaintiffs appeal.
The appellants own, reside on, and operate a farm consisting of approximately one hundred and twenty-five acres, located about one and a half miles south of the city of Colville, in Stevens county.
The respondent is the owner of about.one hundred acres of land immediately adjoining that of the appellants. During the spring or early summer of the year 1920, the respondent constructed a slaughter house upon the land owned by him for the purpose of slaughtering cattle, sheep and hogs to supply the retail
Speaking generally, the appellants seem to make three principal contentions: first with reference to the offensive odors; second, with reference to the flies; and third, that the slaughter house, as such, is a menace to their comfort, repose and health, and therefore should be abated. Upon the question of the odors and the flies, the evidence is directly conflicting. The trial court made no findings of fact or conclusions of law, but simply entered a judgment of dismissal. From the
Without reviewing the evidence in detail, we are of the opinion that the weight of the testimony is to the effect that the odors from the plant do not permeate the air at a distance from the plant of more than fifty feet, and that the plant is not the cause of the menace from flies, if such exists. It is true that a plant of this character, as shown by the evidence, has a smell or odor peculiar to itself the same as in other packinghouses. We think the evidence shows that the plant is well constructed and operated in a sanitary manner. Complaint is made in this connection with reference to the hog pen adjacent to the slaughter house, wherein are kept and fed from fifteen to thirty head of hogs. If the operation of the plant were such as to cause offensive odors and the presence of flies, and if the hog-pen was in such a condition that it would constitute a nuisance to the appellants, the remedy would be not to abate the operation of the slaughter house until such time as the respondent had had an opportunity to operate it in an entirely sanitary manner. With reference to a slaughter house, in Grant v. Rosenburg, 112 Wash. 361, 192 Pac. 889, 196 Pac. 626, upon rehearing En Banc, it was said:
“It follows that, before an order may issue destroying the plant of appellants, a reasonable time and opportunity should be given to the appellants to obviate the noxious odors.’’
The judgment will be affirmed.
Parker, C. J., Mackintosh, and Hovey, JJ., concur.