Michael Antongiovanni Obtains Appellate Victory Reversing Lower Court's Dismissal of Plaintiff Claim

Partner, Michael J. Antongiovanni, recently obtained an appellate victory in the Appellate Division, Second Department, reversing the lower court’s dismissal of plaintiff’s claim for a private nuisance and declaration that noise emanating from a neighboring property’s air conditioner condensing units exceeds permissible sound levels of the noise code. Mr. Antongiovanni successfully argued that the lower court’s exclusive focus on the residential character of the source of the disturbance, rather than the disturbance itself, was contrary to settled principles of nuisance law. The Appellate Division agreed and, in so doing, parted from an earlier decision that the lower court had interpreted as establishing a general rule that a residential condensing unit can never, as a matter of law, serve as a source of a nuisance.