What is the difference between a public nuisance and a private nuisance?

Nuisance comes in two classes

Article 695 opens by splitting the concept: Nuisance is either public or private. A nuisance, broadly, is something that annoys, endangers or damages others, but the law sorts it into two classes based mainly on the breadth of who is affected. The distinction is not about how serious the harm is or what kind of activity causes it. It is about scope: does the problem strike the public at large, or does it fall on a private individual? That single question, how wide the reach, is the key that sorts a nuisance into one box or the other, and it drives much of what follows in the law of nuisance.

A public nuisance reaches the community

The article defines the public kind directly: A public nuisance affects a community or neighborhood or any considerable number of persons, although the extent of the annoyance, danger or damage upon individuals may be unequal. Two features stand out. First, it is measured by breadth; it must reach a community, a neighborhood, or a considerable number of people, not just one household. Second, the impact need not be even. The closing clause makes clear that some people may be hit harder than others, and that unevenness does not stop it from being public. So a blocked public road, a foul-smelling operation affecting a whole street, or a hazard endangering passers-by generally fits the public category.

A private nuisance is everything else

The private kind is defined by exclusion. The article says simply: A private nuisance is one that is not included in the foregoing definition. In other words, if the harm does not reach a community, a neighborhood or a considerable number of persons, it is private. Typically this is a nuisance that injures one person or a small, definite few, for example a neighbor's activity that damages only your particular property or disturbs only your household. The law does not give private nuisance its own list of features; it is the residual category, catching whatever annoyance, danger or damage falls short of the public threshold.

Why the classification matters

The label decides who may act and how. Because a public nuisance harms the community, it is generally treated as a wrong against the public, and it is the proper authorities who ordinarily move against it on the community's behalf. A private individual usually cannot sue over a public nuisance unless they have suffered a special injury, some hurt different from, and beyond, what the general public suffers. A private nuisance, by contrast, belongs to the person harmed, who may pursue the remedies the law provides to stop or abate it and to recover for the damage. So before choosing a remedy, it pays to identify which kind of nuisance you are really dealing with.

Cases citing this provision

These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.

• Linda Rana vs. Teresita Lee Wong, et al./Sps Rosario and Wilson Uy, et al. vs. Sps. Reynaldo and Linda Rana, G.R. No. 192861 / G.R. No. 192862, June 30, 2014 — read the decision on LawPhil →
• Ang Ladlad LGBT Party vs. Commission on Elections, G.R. No. 190582, April 8, 2010 — read the decision on LawPhil →

Related provisions

• Civil Code, Article 695 — Public And Private Nuisance