INFORMATION BRIEF
Minnesota House of Representatives
Research Department View

What is nuisance activity?

Minnesota’s public nuisance law defines “nuisance activity” to include:
• two or more behavioral incidents
• committed within a building
• within the previous 12 months
• involving one or more of the following activities:

1. prostitution or prostitution-related activity;
2. gambling or gambling-related activity;
3. unlawful activity involving controlled substances (drugs);
4. unlicensed sales of alcoholic beverages;
5. unlawful furnishing of alcoholic beverages to a person under age 21;
6. unlawful use or possession of a firearm;
7. maintaining or permitting a condition which unreasonably annoys, injures, or
   endangers the safety, health, morals, or repose of any considerable number of
   members of the public;
8. engaging in any other activity declared by law to be a public nuisance; or
9. the violation by any commercial enterprise of a local nuisance ordinance or
   regulation.
   

3 results for: flophouse
View results from: Dictionary | | | | Thesaurus Encyclopedia All Reference
the Web

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1) Cite This Source
flop·house Ê Ê [ -hous flop ] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
•noun, plural -hous·es . [-hou-ziz] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
a cheap, run-down hotel or rooming house.
[Origin: + ] 1890•95; FLOP HOUSE
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

American Heritage Dictionary Cite This Source
(fl p hous )ÊÊ ÊÊ flop·house Pronunciation Key
n.
A cheap rundown hotel or boarding house.
( or ) Download Now Buy the Book
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

WordNet Cite This Source
flophouse
n : a cheap lodging house [syn: ] dosshouse

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=1&q=flophouse

Private Nuisance Actions

Separate from public nuisance but sometimes overlapping it, Minnesota statutes also recognize
private nuisance. Private nuisance is defined as anything “injurious to health, indecent or
offensive to the senses, or an obstruction to the free use of property, so as to interfere with the
comfortable enjoyment of life or property.”

Private nuisance is a form of damage caused by wrongful conduct. The wrongful activity may
consist of a statute or ordinance violation, or it may be lawful and involve intentional conduct,
negligence, or an ultra-hazardous activity. If the conduct both violates a public nuisance statute
and interferes with an individual’s ability to freely use and enjoy property, the activity can be
addressed both by the prosecutor through the public nuisance statute and by an individual’s
separate private civil action for damages or an injunction.

While case law indicates a business should not be destroyed unless necessary to protect another’s
rights, abatements have been ordered that have closed down legitimate businesses. Examples of
business activities that Minnesota case law has recognized to be private nuisances include
industrial plants transferring dust to adjacent residential property; a limestone quarry giving off
noise, fumes, and odors; wastewater treatment plant odors; poultry and hog farm odors; and
water and sewage runoff.

Activities need not be part of a business or be unlawful to be found a nuisance; for example, one
case held that a tree overhanging a neighbor’s yard was a private nuisance.