Harrison v. Indiana Auto Shredders Co.
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
528 F.2d 1107 (1975)
Indiana Auto Shredders (defendant) operated a properly zoned and permitted car-recycling shredding plant in a residential area of Indianapolis. Nearby residents and workers, including Harrison (plaintiff), sued alleging the plant's dust, vibration, and noise constituted a common-law and statutory nuisance and violated local air-pollution rules, though no imminent health hazard was established at trial. The district court granted a permanent injunction shutting down the plant entirely, along with compensatory and punitive damages, and Shredders appealed.
Whether a properly zoned business may be permanently shut down on nuisance grounds, absent an imminent threat to health or welfare, without first being given an opportunity to correct its objectionable features.