Thursday, October 7, 2010

Noise wars: Bowery resident sues the eatery down below



A resident at 344 Bowery is suing her downstairs neighbor, the Spanish tapas joint Sala. The New York Law Journal wrote about the case yesterday:

New York City has a reputation as the city that never sleeps. As a recent decision by Supreme Court, New York County Justice Joan M. Kenney in Kahona Beach LLC v. Santa Ana Restaurant Corp. demonstrates, balancing that 24/7 vitality against competing quality of life concerns can sometimes be problematic and require court intervention. In Kahona Beach, the limited liability company owning a condominium apartment in Manhattan, and the individual residing there, sued a restaurant/lounge located directly below the apartment, the principal of the restaurant/lounge and the restaurant/lounge’s landlord. The suit sought damages and permanent injunctive relief based on defendants’ allegedly having created a private nuisance by playing music too loudly.


You need a "premium subscription" to access the article ... However, I'm thankful that the lawyer behind the blog NonConformingUse passed along the link with a quickie explanation:

Feel free to read through the whole article (which is just a jargony rehash of the decision). Basically, this case is cleared to go to trial — there are issues of fact that a jury needs to decide.


Also, as I reported back in August, Sala is for sale.

[Updated: Eater is reporting that Sala was victorious in the lawsuit.]

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's great. I wish I had the money to sue Mundial when it was open on 12th Street. I can't tell you how many sleepless nights I endured because of that place. Seriously, if money wasn't an issue, I would have done it. Unfortunately, 99.9 percent of us just don't have the funds to battle the bars.

Bowery Boy said...

Where are those damn Free Marketers when you need them??? Isn't this the kind of thing that capitalism is supposed to fix??? I mean, someone should be inventing and fabricating some kind of ceiling and flooring that would stop the noise, making both parties happy and able to live side-by-side. Imagine how much money a company could make between the bars and bedrooms of thousands of NYC'ers.

LiberationNYC said...

I feel for the tenant but who in their right mind would buy a condo above a restaurant? Even if Sala was quiet, whose to say the next tenant wouldn't be?

paughjj said...

Well, to be fair, this isn't exactly over. Eater doesn't have it quite right.

True, the judge denied her motion for summary judgment and for a permanent injunction (i.e. she wanted the court to prevent Sala from playing ANY music from 9pm til 11am - 7 days a week!). But the court did NOT decide whether the Sala noise was a nuisance -- instead, that's going to have to be decided at trial.

From the decision: "As is generally the case in nuisance suits, this case presents issues of fact for trial. The primary dispute here concerns the reasonableness of the noise that has emanated from Sala."

Anonymous said...

POWerrr to the PeoPLE!