- TS * V ^■^'rT 



100 



The Florists^ Review 



Apbil 13. 1922 



The florists whose cards appear on the pages carrying this head, are prepared to fill orden 

 '" from other florists for local delivery on the usual basis. 



For Flowers Worth While and Service with a Smile, Wire Your Orders to 



556 Skinker 



St. Louis, Mo. 



Member F. T. D. 



We are prepared with everything PoqJ-^,. 



in season to serve you for 



is'fation and 



Leg^ Decision: 



POBTABLE STAND AS NUISANCE. 



Qives Season to Sue. 



Where a portable flower stand is so 

 conducted on a street or highway as to 

 constitute a nuisance to an abut^ng 

 property owner, the latter has a stand- 

 ing in court to sue to restrain its con- 

 tinued maintenance, holds the Cali- 

 fornia District Court of Appeal in the 

 recent case of Cypress Lawn Cemetery 

 Association vs. Lievre et al., 203 Pa- 

 cific Reporter, 150. 



The opinion affirms a judgment of a 

 lower court, restraining defendants 

 from conducting a portable flower stand 

 near the entrance to plaintiff's ceme- 

 tery at Redwood City, Cal. It is to be 

 inferred that plaintiff and the defend- 

 ants were competitors in the sale of 

 flowers to patrons of the cemetery, but 

 this circumstance is given no weight in 

 the decision. The decision rests square- 

 ly on the proposition that defendants 

 BO conducted their business as unreason- 

 ably to interfere with access of the 

 public to the cemetery grounds. And 

 the reasoning would manifestly apply 

 to a situation where a florist having an 

 established location abutting upon a 

 street should be aggrieved by the act 

 of some ambulant florist or other street 

 vender in taking up a location in a 

 street in such way as to interfere with 

 access to and from the floral store. The 

 opinion of the court is as follows: 



Court's Opinion. 



"The plaintiff brought this action to 

 enjoin the defendants from maintaining, 

 along the state highway in front of 

 and adjacent to its cemetery in San 

 Mateo county, portable stands for the 

 sale of flowers and floral decorations, 

 and from obstructing the entrances to 



the cemetery grounds. The lower court 

 determined that the maintenance of 

 these stands and the selling of flowers 

 therefrom created a nuisance by inter- 

 rupting traffic and interfering with 

 plaintiff's ingress and egress, and with 

 the passage of its patrons to and from 

 the highway, and in and out of the 

 cemetery. It granted a perpetual in- 

 junction, from which judgment the de- 

 fendants appeal. 



"The respondent owns land on both 

 .sides of the Mission road, a public 

 highway in San Mateo county, for a 

 distance of some 2,500 feet. Part of 

 it is occupied as a cemetery, which ex- 

 tends far back on both sides of the 

 road. On a portion of the property 

 adjacent to the highway, and about 100 

 feet from it, respondent erected a build- 

 ing containing its business offices and 

 a flower store, which was conducted in 

 the premises. It has constructed and 

 maintained an entrance in front of this 

 building from the highway, which con- 

 nects with and joins the main entrance 

 to the cemetery, which, in turn, is the 

 main and only public entrance to the 

 cemetery on both sides of the roadway. 



Conditions of the Case. 



"Until and prior to about six months 

 before the filing of this action the ap- 

 pellant, Marie Lievre, had for a period 

 of seventeen years maintained a mov- 

 able flower stand on the side of the 

 highway at a point directly in front of 

 the present location of the recently 

 erected office building. When that 

 structure was completed Mrs. Lievre 

 was ordered away from that point. She 

 thereupon moved her stand to a point 

 on the roadway about nine feet away 

 from the northerly entrance to that 

 structure, where she continued to main- 



tain her stand for the sale of flowers. 

 The lower court found that the appel- 

 lants, who, it appears, are all members 

 of one family, on each morning placed 

 on the sidewalk of the public highway, 

 immediately in front of the cemetery of 

 respondent, and in close proximity to 

 the entrance thereto, large portable 

 stands with projecting shelves, large 

 and unsightly boxes and baskets in 

 which were great quantities of greens, 

 ferns, cut flowers, wreaths, wire hold- 

 ers, and other like materials, and also 

 brought bottles, tin tubs, glass and 

 crockery, jars and other like receptacles, 

 which they filled with water, and from 

 which from time to time they splashed 

 water upon their wares and upon the 

 highway, causing the road to become 

 slippery, dangerous, and unsafe for pe- 

 destrians, and that the selling of the 

 flowers by the appellants from their 

 stands created a nuisance, by causing 

 the stopping of automobiles, interrupt- 

 ing traffic and interfering with the 

 plaintiff's ingress and egress, and with 

 the passage of its patrons to and from 

 the highway and in and out of the 

 cemetery, to such an extent at times 

 that funeral processions cannot enter 

 the main entrance or driveway to the 

 cemetery, but are obliged to use an- 

 other roadway, and that the action of 

 the appellants prevents plaintiff from 

 carrying on its business of burying the 

 dead with proper regulation, and from 

 having unobstructed use of its premises. 



Further Argument 



"It was further found that the ap- 

 pellants throw large quantities of 

 greens, withered plants and flowers 

 upon the highway in front of the en- 

 trance, and make and cause great noise 

 and confusion in and about the place, 

 and impede, obstruct, annoy and fre- 

 quently insult persons who enter the 

 grounds. 



"On the foregoing complete and com- 

 prehensive findings, which are amply 

 supported by the evidence, the trial 

 court rested its judgment. Wo think 

 its conclusion was correct. The acts of 

 the appellants, while partaking of the 

 nature of a public nuisance, undoubted- 

 ly inflict upon the respondent a peculiar 



