FEATURE
Construction and Nuisance in California During the Stay-at-Home Order By Steve Roseman, Esq.
O
n March 19, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Executive Order N-33-20 directing all individuals living in the State of California to stay at home except as needed to maintain continuity of operations of essential critical infrastructure sectors (“Order”). In accordance with this Order, the State Public Health Officer designated a list of “Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers” to enumerate sectors of workers considered “essential” and thereby exempt from the stay-at-home order.
providers who provide services that are necessary to maintaining the safety, sanitation, and essential operation of residences have been designated as “essential” by the State Public Health Officer, and therefore, residential construction work continues. With this work continuing, a potential issue has arisen as to whether or not the construction work – which normally would have less of an effect on neighboring homeowners under normal circumstances – is now something that could be considered a nuisance as many that were not before,
interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property … or any public park, square, street, or highway.” The legal definition is very broad. In the case of Monks v. City of Rancho Palos Verdes, the Court in discussing what constitutes a nuisance stated that the interference must be “substantial and unreasonable.” Monks v. City of Rancho Palos Verdes (2008) 167 Cal.App.4th 263, 302 (cross-citations omitted). The Court in Monks further established an objective standard for which a nuisance is to be evaluated by
"In the case of Monks v. City of Rancho Palos Verdes, the Court in discussing what constitutes a nuisance stated that the interference must be 'substantial and unreasonable.'"
The effect of this Order has been an unprecedented number of Californians now telecommuting from home workspaces in the recent days. But with this large segment of California residents telecommuting and therefore being home during regular business hours, novel potential legal issues have arisen. One such issue is due to the fact that workers such as plumbers, electricians, exterminators, and other service
40
Quorum April, 2020
are now home to be affected by the noise that is associated with construction work.
NUISANCE Civil Code Section §3479 defines a “nuisance” as: “Anything which is injurious to health, including, but not limited to, the illegal sale of controlled substances, or [anything that] is indecent or offensive to the senses … as to
articulating that a nuisance exists only if the conduct would be substantially and unreasonably offensive or inconvenient to a normal or average person. Id. In addition, “To determine whether an invasion of a person’s interest in the use and enjoyment of his or her land [is] substantial … the degree of harm is to be judged by the objective standard of the effect the invasion would have on persons of normal health and
