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ARTICLE · 04 JUNE 2014

Parking Lot Dust An Unreasonable Nuisance

Dust generated by trucks driving on an unpaved parking lot can be a nuisance to industrial neighbours, according to the Ontario Court of Appeal.

CanadaEnvironment

Dust generated by trucks driving on an unpaved parking lot can be a nuisance to industrial neighbours, according to the Ontario Court of Appeal.

In TMS Lighting Ltd. v. KJS Transport Inc., 2014 CarswellOnt 2, the court ruled that the dust unreasonably interfered with a neighbouring business's use and enjoyment of its property. For approximately five years, airborne dust generated by the trucking operations persistently disrupted the neighbours' lighting manufacturing business. The court ordered a new trial on the issue of damages.

The plaintiff, a manufacturer of lighting fixtures, had sued a neighbouring trucking business in a Brampton industrial park because of the persistent parking lot dust.  The trial judge had applied the test laid out by the Ontario Court of Appeal in Smith v. Inco, which drew a distinction between nuisance based on physical injury to land and nuisance based on "substantial interference with the plaintiff's use or enjoyment of land."

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