Pestey v. Cushman
Connecticut Supreme Court
788 A.2d 496 (2002)
James and Joan Pestey (plaintiffs) sued their neighbors, the Cushmans and their dairy farm partnership (defendants), for private nuisance after the farm's barn, manure pit, and later a manure-digester system produced increasingly intense, acrid odors that entered the Pesteys' land. The jury, instructed to weigh the relevant factors, returned a partial verdict for the Pesteys and awarded $100,000 in damages; the defendants appealed.
Whether a plaintiff claiming private nuisance -- a non-trespassory invasion of the use and enjoyment of property -- must prove an invasion of that use and enjoyment, that the defendant's conduct proximately caused it, and that the invasion was either intentional and unreasonable or unintentional and negligent or reckless.