Authorized by Statute Nuisance In California

Civil Code section 3482 provides: "Nothing which is done or maintained under the express authority of a statute can be deemed a nuisance." Section 3482 bars an action for nuisance "where the alleged wrongful acts are expressly authorized by statute. The Supreme Court has 'consistently applied a narrow construction to section 3482 and to the principle therein embodied.' "A statutory sanction cannot be pleaded in justification of acts which by the general rules of law constitute a nuisance, unless the acts complained of are authorized by the express terms of the statute under which the justification is made, or by the plainest and most necessary implication from the powers expressly conferred, so that it can be fairly stated that the legislature contemplated the doing of the very act which occasions the injury." ( Friends of H Street v. City of Sacramento (1993) 20 Cal. App. 4th 152, 160 [24 Cal. Rptr. 2d 607].) Even though acts authorized by statute cannot give rise to nuisance liability, "the manner in which those acts are performed may constitute a nuisance." (Ibid.)