Health Department of the City of New York, Respondent, v. Frederick Dassori, Appellant, Impleaded with Others.
Sew York city—a building, constituting a nuisance, cannot be destroyed unless its destruction is the only method by which the nuisance can be abated — the fact that it deprives an adjoining building of proper ventilation does not justify its destruction.
The purpose of section 659 of the Consolidation Act (Laws of 1883, chap. 410, as amended by chap. 567, Laws of 1895) was to provide a summary method by which any nuisance in a building in the city of NeW York, making the building dangerous to the health of its occupants or that of any other persons1 might be abated, also to provide a way in which the existence of the nuisance might be adjudged and the necessity of the destruction of the property where the nuisance existed might be decreed, and finally to provide a method of fixing the compensation to which the owner of the building would be entitled if its destruction was found necessary.