59 Miss. 116 | Miss. | 1881
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is an appeal from the refusal of the Chancellor to dissolve the injunction which had been granted in the cause. By the agreement of the parties the case is to be considered and treated as if submitted on final hearing and disposition on its merits. The gravamen of the bill is that the defendant (appellant) is about to sow on his land contiguous to or in the vicinity of lands of the complainants Johnson grass seed, which is averred to be most pernicious seed, and will surely cause the lands of the complainants to be overrun with this grass, whereby they will be rendered unfit for other purposes, and unsuitable for the production of cotton, corn, and other crops usually produced in the country ; and that this will constitute a nuisance for which the defendant cannot respond in damages because of his insolvency. The answer admits that the defendant was about to sow on his land the kind of seed mentioned, but denies its pernicious character as charged, and that his sowing the seed will produce the result alleged by the bill, and claims the right in the defendant to sow the seed. A great mass of testimony was taken and is now before us, and has received due attention.
The precise limits of one’s liberty to do as he pleases with his own property it is often difficult to define. It maj^ be said that this liberty stops just at the point where the rights of others begin; but the inquiry arises, What are the rights of others which operate to restrict the exercise of one’s dominion over his own property ? That every man’s right to exercise exclusive dominion over his own property, and to make such use of it as he pleases, is subject to some qualification by reason of his social relations, and for the conservation of the just rights of all the members of society, is an established principle in the law of property. As to some things, the adjudications of the courts in England and America define the limits of the conflicting rights of individuals, but, bejmnd the rules thus
Many things have been decided to be nuisances, and as to them we have a guide, but we can find no precedent for the case at bar. In the case cited above, the Court of Appeals of New York said: “The maxim sic utere tuo ut alienum non Icedas is iterated and reiterated in our books, and yet there is scarcely an aphorism known to the law the true application of which is more vague and undefined. Interpreted literally, it would enjoin a man against any use of his own property which in its consequences might injuriously affect the interests of others; but no such legal principle ever existed. The affairs of life could not well be conducted under the restraints of such a rule. On the contrary, every proprietor has absolute control over his own property, and may do with it whatever he pleases, unless he thereby infringes some fixed legal right of another. Loss or damage to one person arising from the use made by another of his own property is damnum absque injuria,, and affords no ground of action.” “ Every person has a right to the reasonable enjoyment of his property, and so long as the use to which he devotes it violates no rights of another, however much damage others may sustain therefrom, his use is lawful, and it is damnum absque injuria.” Wood on Nuisances, § 2. To constitute a nuisance there must be a violation of the rights of others.
How far every one has the right to plant in his own soil
The principle on which the preventive aid of courts is rendered against threatened injury is well understood. The difficulty is in its application, and this difficulty is greatly increased by the novelty of this case. Great caution should be used in dealing with a matter so delicate and difficult. Every doubt should be solved against the restraint of a proprietor in the use of his own property for a purpose seemingly lawful, and conducive both to individual gain and the general welfare. Relief by injunction is so severe in its consequences that it is not to be granted in such a case, except when the right to it is clearly and conclusively made out. To interfere with one’s right to use his own land for the production of what he pleases, in a case of doubt, would be a flagrant abuse of power. It is not enough to show a probable or contingent injury, but it must be shown to be inevitable and undoubted. Wood on Nuisances, § 6 ; Green v. Lake, 54 Miss. 540.
The voluminous testimony of the many witnesses in this case is quite variant. It is clearly shown that the Johnson grass is very valuable. It makes excellent hay, in large quantity per acre, yielding as much as six tons a year on good land, and seems suited to supply a long felt want of the South. Statements and opinions differ widely as to the spreading of the grass, and its destructibility, and its destructiveness of other crops. According to some of the witnesses, it is an unmitigated curse, threatening ruin to the land as to all else, obtruding itself persistently where it is not wanted, carried far and wide by wind and water and birds and animals, and sending forth its pernicious roots full of joints close together, and each possessing
We are embarrassed by the contrariety of statements and opinions, and the uncertainty thus created. If we maintain the injunction wrongfully, great harm may be thereby done to the appellant and the country. If future developments shall place it beyond doubt that the grass is an evil to be prevented and extirpated, a remedy may perhaps be found. As at present advised, we regard the result of sowing the grass seed too doubtful, uncertain, and contingent to justify the continuance of the injunction. The history and habits of the grass are too little known and established to authorize its condemnation as a nuisance, which is necessary to sustain this bill. The grass may be neither an unmixed evil or good. Time and trial will disclose its true character. If it be said it will be too late, after its introduction into the country, to stay the evil, if it shall prove to be such, the reply is that it is already in many places in Mississippi and Arkansas, and is in Washington county ; and, if its character is correctly portrayed by some of the witnesses, it must soon have the exclusive occupancy of the whole land, and the dissolution of this injunction will exert little influence on this inevitable result. We therefore reverse the decree of the Chancellor, and dismiss the bill without prejudice to the rights of the complainants in any future controversy on this subject. Decree accordingly.