Record Data
Transcription
Is a Bowling Alley a Nuisance?
Judge Witherell, of Detroit, has granted an injunction against a bowling alley in that city, on the complaint of Mr. Chas. Taylor, alleging that defendant’s saloon and bowling alley were a nuisance to the complainant, and the neighborhood, and endangering the life of complainant’s wife, who was very sick, and interfered with the hope of her recovery. Complainant’s counsel argued that a bowling alley was a nuisance at common law; that it was more clearly a nuisance, as was also this saloon, because they are prohibited by the penal laws of the State; that the answer did not deny the equities of the bill, inasmuch as it did not deny the illegality of the defendant’s business, or the injury to complainant; that the possibility of the defendant’s having a license could avail him nothing unless he actually had such license, which he does not pretend; that the license of the Common Council could not give the defendant the right to inflict a private injury or irreparable damage upon the complainant; and that the argument that the complainant has come to the defendant’s nuisance cannot avail, for the reason that it has been abundantly decided that the growth of population and the progress of civilization are not to be retarded by the pre-occupancy of the ground by noxious trades, or other nuisances.