Civil Jury Instructions Home

3.9-25  Public or Private Nuisance - Municipality

Revised to January 1, 2008

A.  General
In order to find a municipality liable for damages for nuisance, the plaintiff must prove that the municipality both created and maintained the condition.

Authority

Lukas v. New Haven, 184 Conn. 205, 209 (1981) (municipal liability in general).  See also Walsh v. Stonington Water Pollution Control Authority, 250 Conn. 443, 463-64 (1999), regarding municipal liability for nuisance, and Elliott v. Waterbury, 245 Conn. 385, 421 (1998), regarding the necessity of proving that the municipality intentionally created the nuisance by some positive act, as an exception to governmental immunity.

See also General Statutes § 52-557n (a) (1) which provides no cause of action for defective road or bridge, except under General Statutes § 13a-149.

B.  Intentional Failure to Act - Pollution
A municipality is liable for a public nuisance that it intentionally creates through its prolonged and deliberate failure to act to abate that nuisance.

Notes

Municipal liability for public nuisance in this context has so far been found only for failure to abate environmental pollution.  Keeney v. Old Saybrook, 237 Conn. 135, 165 & n.25 (1996).