Maine Revised Statutes

Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 17, § 2802 (2026)

Miscellaneous nuisances

✓ current as of May 2026

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The erection, continuance or use of any building or place for the exercise of a trade, employment or manufacture that, by noxious exhalations, offensive smells or other annoyances, becomes injurious and dangerous to the health, comfort or property of individuals or of the public; causing or permitting abandoned wells or tin mining shafts to remain unfilled or uncovered to the injury or prejudice of others; causing or suffering any offal, filth or noisome substance to collect or to remain in any place to the prejudice of others; obstructing or impeding, without legal authority, the passage of any navigable river, harbor or collection of water; corrupting or rendering unwholesome or impure the water of a river, stream, pond or aquifer; imprudent operation of a watercraft as defined in Title 12, section 13068-A, subsection 8; unlawfully diverting the water of a river, stream, pond or aquifer from its natural course or state to the injury or prejudice of others; and the obstructing or encumbering by fences, buildings or otherwise of highways, private ways, streets, alleys, commons, common landing places or burying grounds are nuisances within the limitations and exceptions mentioned. Any places where one or more old, discarded, worn-out or junked motor vehicles as defined in Title 29-A, section 101, subsection 42, or parts thereof, are gathered together, kept, deposited or allowed to accumulate, in such manner or in such location or situation either within or without the limits of any highway, as to be unsightly, detracting from the natural scenery or injurious to the comfort and happiness of individuals and the public, and injurious to property rights, are public nuisances. [PL 2005, c. 397, Pt. A, §11 (AMD).]

SECTION HISTORY

PL 1965, c. 78, §1 (AMD). PL 1971, c. 274 (AMD). PL 1979, c. 472, §3 (AMD). PL 1995, c. 65, §A53 (AMD). PL 1995, c. 65, §§A153,C15 (AFF). PL 1997, c. 540, §4 (AMD). PL 1997, c. 683, §A7 (AMD). RR 2003, c. 2, §24 (COR). PL 2005, c. 397, §A11 (AMD).

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 18 cases (5 in the last 5 years), 1978–2023 · leading case: Johnston v. Me. Energy Recovery, Ltd. P'ship, 2010 ME 52 (Me. 2010).

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Johnston v. Me. Energy Recovery, Ltd. P'ship, 2010 ME 52 (Me. 2010). · cites it 3× “We do not reach the question of whether 17 M.R.S. § 2802 (2009) encompasses a private, as well as a public, nuisance.”

Charlton v. Town of Oxford, 2001 ME 104 (Me. 2001). · cites it 2× “was intended to apply to those nuisance actions presently delineated in 17 M.R.S.A. § 2802 [miscellaneous nuisances].”

Travelers Indem. Co. v. Dingwell, 414 A.2d 220 (Me. 1980). “Travelers’ Violation of Law Exclusion As an alternative ground for denying coverage with respect to its policy, Travelers relies on part (a)(2) of its pollution exclusion, which provides that the insurance will not apply to a release of pollutants “resulting from or contributed…”

Dep't of Env't Prot. v. Emerson, 563 A.2d 762 (Me. 1989). “The State’s complaint also alleged that Emerson was creating a public nuisance in violation of 17 M.R.S.A. § 2802 (1983). The thrust of Emerson’s defense is that his facility is grandfathered and not subject to the requirements of those laws.”

Johnson v. Whitten, 384 A.2d 698 (Me. 1978). “” *702 This statute, as we discern from its origin and history, was intended to apply to those nuisance actions presently delineated in 17 M.R.S.A. § 2802. See Lyons v. Woodward, 49 Me.”

Aalberg v. Stevens, 489 A.2d 1 (Me. 1985). · cites it 2× “Additionally, the plaintiff claims the referee erred in declining to order a survey of the easement at the plaintiff’s expense, in refusing to consider the issue of the obstruction of a turnaround, and in failing to address the possible violation of 17 M.R.S.A. § 2802 (1988),…”

Town of Kittery v. Dineen, 591 A.2d 236 (Me. 1991). · cites it 2× “§ 2452 (1978), 1 and a public nuisance in violation of 17 M.R.S.A. § 2802 (1983), 2 on his premises at 40-42 Old Post Road in Kittery.”

State v. Goodwin, 414 A.2d 894 (Me. 1980). · cites it 3× “The defendant, Erland Goodwin, appeals from a judgment of conviction for violation of 17 M.R.S.A. § 2802, maintaining a public nuisance, entered in the Superior Court, Waldo County, following a jury trial.”

Town of Porter v. Blevens, 2009 ME 48 (Me. 2009). “) for the Blevenses’ failure to comply with a prior contempt order and a prior judgment entered by consent upon the Town of Porter’s Rule 80K complaint alleging violations of land use statutes, see 17 M.R.S. § 2802 (2008) (governing miscellaneous nuisances); 30-A M.”

Bedell v. Cole, 642 A.2d 169 (Me. 1994). “See Restatement (Second) of Torts § 840(1) (1977) (“[A] possessor of land is not liable to persons outside the land for a nuisance resulting solely from a natural condition of the land.”

Latouf v. Barnard (Me. Super. Ct 2023). · cites it 3× “Barnard's conduct meets the definition of a common law nuisance or is listed as a private nuisance in 17 M.R.S. § 2802. 10 There is no evidence of activity that meets the definition of a private nuisance as set forth in 17 M.”

Guidi v. Jordan (Me. Super. Ct 2003). · cites it 2× “STATUS OF THE CASE Plaintiffs brought a two-count complaint alleging that Eugene Jordan (“Jordan”) violated 17 M.R.S.A. § 2802 by maintaining a nuisance (automobile graveyard) on his property (Count I).”

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