Plaintiffs obtained an injunction restraining defendants from maintaining a nuisance by unreasonable and injurious methods of operation of their music studio.
Defendants operate a music studio in an area in the city of Los Angeles where the zoning ordinance permits the operation of such a business. Plaintiffs are the occupants of neighboring buildings. The court found that the studio is conducted in a residence building “without sound proofing the same or adapting it for such [music school business] use, and that in so doing have caused or permitted persons to sing and rehearse and practice on musical instruments, individually and in groups, such as bands and orchestras consisting of wind instruments, brass instruments and combinations thereof, as well as vocal exercises daily and including sounds from early hours of the morning to late hours of the night.
“That during such practicing and rehearsing, defendants have opened or permitted others to open doors and windows of defendants’ residence”; that such activities occur in such volume that they are heard by plaintiffs in their residences and places of business day and night; that the sounds injuriously disturb and offend and affect plaintiffs and their businesses; that the place where defendants conduct the studio is “not designed for nor adapted to such purpose, insofar as controlling discordant musical sounds coming therefrom, is concerned.
“That the methods of operation of defendants’ said studios are unnecessary, unreasonable and injurious.
“That the defendants are creating the nuisance herein complained of as the direct result of said unnecessary, unreasonable and injurious methods of operation.”
Defendants challenge the judgment on two grounds: (1) That there is insufficient evidence to support the judgment and (2) that the judgment is too vague and uncertain.
On the first proposition defendants contend that there is no evidence to establish a nuisance justifying injunctive relief *220 for there is no evidence that the studio is operated or conducted in a manner different from other studios in the city and that such evidence is necessary under section 731a of the Code of Civil Procedure. That section provides: “Whenever any city . . . shall have established zones or districts under authority of law wherein certain . . . commercial uses are expressly permitted, except in an action to abate a public nuisance brought in the name of the people of the State of California, no person . . . shall be enjoined or restrained by the injunctive process from the reasonable and necessary operation in any such . . . commercial zone of any use expressly permitted therein, nor shall such use b,e deemed a nuisance without evidence of the employment of unnecessary and injurious methods of operation.” [Emphasis added.]
Prior to the addition of that section to the Code of Civil Procedure in 1935, the law was settled that a person could enjoin certain conduct as a nuisance even though the business was conducted in a district zoned to permit business of the type of which complaint was made and defendant was making an effort to operate his business in a careful and efficient manner.
(Eaton
v.
Klimm,
There is nothing in
McNeill
v.
Redington,
In support of the findings of the employment of unnecessary and injurious methods of operation, there is evidence that the building used for the studio is a residence ; that nothing was done to soundproof it or adapt it to the operation of the business; that windows were left open permitting free flow of the sound; and that the noise emanated from the studio day and night. That is plainly sufficient to support the finding and to satisfy the requirement under section 731a that there be evidence of the employment of unnecessary and injurious methods of operation.
The judgment for the injunction which defendants claim is too vague and uncertain reads that defendants be restrained “from creating a nuisance by unnecessary, unreasonable and injurious methods of operation of their said music studio in their residence at 611 North Larchmont Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, which methods of operation can be corrected by adapting said premises to such commercial use.”
*222
There can he no doubt that an injunction must not be uncertain or ambiguous and defendant must be able to determine from it what he may and may not do.
(Weber
v.
Superior Court,
In the instant case the court found that no effort had been made to adapt the residence to a music studio use; that the methods of operation are unnecessary and unreasonable; that no soundproofing had been
done;
that the windows were left open and noises emanated therefrom day and night causing injury to the plaintiffs. The judgment provides that the condition could be corrected by making the residence suitable for conducting a music school business and the method of accomplishing that end is presumably within the knowledge of the operators of that character of business. The judgment followed the language of the statute. (Code Civ. Proc., § 731a,
supra.)
From all of these circumstances we believe the judgment is sufficiently certain. The judgment is not too broad as was the case in
People
v.
Robin,
The injunctive relief here granted falls well within the rule announced in the above cited authorities and the judgment granting such relief is therefore affirmed.
Gibson, C. J., Shenk, J., Edmonds, J., Traynor, J., Sehauer, J., and Spence, J., concurred.
Appellants’ petition for a rehearing was denied January 20, 1949.
