Private Nuisance
A private nuisance is an interference with a person's enjoyment and use of his land. The law recognizes that landowners, or those in rightful possession of land, have the right to the unimpaired condition of the property and to reasonable comfort and convenience in its occupation.
Examples of private nuisances abound. Nuisances that interfere with the physical condition of the land include vibration or blasting that damages a house; destruction of crops; raising of a water table; or the pollution of soil, a stream, or an underground water supply. Examples of nuisances interfering with the comfort, convenience, or health of an occupant are foul odors, noxious gases, smoke, dust, loud noises, excessive light, or high temperatures. Moreover, a nuisance may also disturb an occupant's mental tranquility, such as a neighbor who keeps a vicious dog, even though an injury is only threatened and has not actually occurred.
I am not aware of any case where a large, once-a-week social gathering of friends in a private home has been found to constitute a nuisance. A fraternity house that has many noisy parties dragging on late into the night, perhaps. But a quiet prayer meeting from 4 to 6 PM every Sunday, even if it brings 20 or 25 cars onto the public roads of a residential neighborhood, no way.
You could bring the action and pay a lawyer $200 an hour to represent you, but if you win I will root for the Yankees for the rest of my life. It is not the Murphys who are acting unreasonably here. It is their overly-sensitive neighbors.
Prove me wrong.
