Reply to DC resident sues neighbor over pot smell AND WINS

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Wouldn’t this mean that I can sue my neighbor for their leaf blower too? [/quote]

I doubt a judge or jury would ever agree that occasionally using a leaf blower for its intended purpose in a residential neighborhood is a nuisance. Now, if your neighbor runs it every day for no apparent reason, then yes, you'd probably win that case. I'm not really sure how you see any parallels with weed.[/quote]

I can step outside any given day of the week from spring into winter and hear a leaf blower or lawn service on my block. I can smell them too.

What about strong cooking smells? BBQ? Curry? 
 [/quote]

You should probably spend time researching nuisance law, and you'll probably be disappointed because leaf blowers and cooking are not out of character for living in a residential area (if any of the neighbors are running it just to annoy you, again that might be a different case, but you've described that many neighbors are all using them for their intended purposes). But hey, if you think you have a case that you can prove, and you want to sue all of your neighbors for collectively annoying you, go ahead and waste your money to do it. You'll need to convince a judge or a jury.[/quote]

At last, someone on DCUM who gets that people can't just equate pot smoking's effects on neighbors with other things like leaf blowers or cooking smells.

The pot lovers will come out of the woodwork here to defend their right to invade others' personal spaces with their smoke. What their addled brains can't comprehend is that smoking -- pot, cigarettes, anything -- not only creates a mere "scent," it creates particulate matter which permeates even the smallest spaces and goes into others' homes and lungs. The smokers don't want to understand or admit that aspect and don't see any problem with it if they DO understand it. Because they're self-centered.[/quote]

Has anybody won something like this for cigarette smoke, or cigar smoke? I hate that smell and it's every bit of a health risk as the smell of pot. [/quote]

Yes, there are court cases where regular cigarette smoke has been deemed a nuisance if it is persistently invading another person’s property.

Usually in successful cases like this, the decision requires the defendant to EITHER cease the nuisance activity OR take mitigating measures to reduce/eliminate impact on neighboring properties. So the classic case would be a noise nuisance case where the offender is required to stop the noise or put up noise absorbing walls. For smoke, the issue could be resolved by smoking only indoors, ensuring smoky air is not ventilating into someone’s yard or home, etc.

I haven’t read this case but I’d be surprised if the judge said “you can’t smoke at home anymore.” I would expect it was more like “if you want to smoke at home, you need to find a way that doesn’t result in your neighbor living with this smoke and smell 24/7.”  Guess if the properties were set up so that wasn’t possible (shared air system?).[/quote]

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