Bristol Door & Lumber Co. v. City of Bristol

Citations

• 97 Va. 304
• 33 S.E. 588
• 1899 Va. LEXIS 39

Syllabus

<p>1. Municipal Cobpobations—Injunctions—Irreparable Injury.—Courts of equity have jurisdiction to restrain the proceedings of municipal corporations which encroach upon private rights, and are productive of irreparable injury.</p> <p>2. Municipal Coepoeations—Police Powers—Nuisance.—In order to secure and promote the public health, safety, and convenience, municipal corporations are endowed with power to prevent and abate nuisances. This power, and its summary exercise, may be constitutionally conferred on municipal corporations, and they, may be authorized to act against that which comes within the legal definition of a nuisance, but such power conferred in general terms, cannot be taken to authorize the extra-judicial condemnation and destruction of that as a nuisance which, in its nature, situation, or use, is not such.</p> <p>3. Municipal Coepoeations—Nuisance—Destruction of Buildings.— When a building is a nuisance only because of the uses to which it is devoted, the building itself cannot be pulled down to stop the nuisance, but only the wrongful use can be stopped. The occupation of a building by disorderly and lewd persons, its filthy and unsightly condition, and the consequent injury to adjacent property, do not justify its destruction as a nuisance.</p>