Telescope Reviews: Light pollution issues cause legal threats!

Since I have access to it, I decided to do a quick Lexis legal search. I looked up statues in Pennsylvania for Harassment, Trespass, and Nuisance. I believe that this post will be useful for anyone who finds themselves in the same situation as you, as the applications are somewhat broad reaching, even outside of Pennsylvania. If you (or any other readers) want to skip past the legal discussion of the original post, skip to the last paragraph.

Your state defines harassment as (18 Pa.C.S. § 2709 (2007))

(1) strikes, shoves, kicks or otherwise subjects the other person to physical contact, or attempts or threatens to do the same;
(2) follows the other person in or about a public place or places;
(3) engages in a course of conduct or repeatedly commits acts which serve no legitimate purpose;
(4) communicates to or about such other person any lewd, lascivious, threatening or obscene words, language, drawings or caricatures;
(5) communicates repeatedly in an anonymous manner;
(6) communicates repeatedly at extremely inconvenient hours; or
(7) communicates repeatedly in a manner other than specified in paragraphs (4), (5) and (6).

Now, presuming that you read the above, you probably did not violate sections 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. I’m going to guess you didn’t ring their doorbell while they were eating dinner repeatedly or after, say, midnight, you didn’t violate 6. But what about 7? Well, it depends on how you define “communicates.” What matters is that Pennsylvania defines “communicates” as follows:

“Communicates – Conveys a message without intent of legitimate communication or address by oral, nonverbal, written or electronic means, including telephone, electronic mail, Internet, facsimile, telex, wireless communication or similar transmission.”

What does all this mean? Well, your neighbors cannot sue you for harassment because you did so in a convenient manner, and had a legitimate communication; their lights annoyed the hell out of you and you wanted them to turn them off. This is evidenced by your possession of astronomical gear (my state requires that a star gazing permit holder hold astronomical gear to prove they have legitimate intent).

Your neighbors believe that they could bring a suit of trespass against you. Whereas harassment is spelled out in 7 points, trespass is broken into 4 sections (18 Pa.C.S. § 3503): Criminal Trespass, Defiant Trespass, Simple Trespass, and Agricultural Trespass.

Criminal trespass requires that a person “break into” a “secured” building. You didn’t do that. Since I highly doubt they put fences and anti-trespassing signs up, you were not a “Defiant” trespasser. Agricultural trespass is right out; you weren’t wandering around farmland. Now lets get to the gist: what is “Simple Trespass.”

Simple Trespass requires that you “enter(s) or remain(s) in any place (where you are not licensed to do so) for the purpose of a) threatening or terrorizing the owner or occupant of the premises; b) starting or causing to be started any fire upon the premises; or c) defacing or damaging the premises.”

What does all this mean? Well, their lawyer has no case; you didn’t violate any of these statues, and you certainly didn’t threaten them, where as they were trying to intimidate you! Your position is further bolstered by your attempts to offer, at your expense, a solution to the issues.

Pennsylvania requires that, for light to be a nuisance, it must “The private nuisance light cases, considered as a whole, seem to warrant the generalization that if the intensity of light shining from adjoining land is strong enough to seriously disturb a person of ordinary sensibilities or interfere with an occupation which is no more than ordinarily susceptible to light, it is a nuisance; if not, there is no cause of action. The courts will not afford protection to hypersensitive individuals or industries (Fontanella v. Leonetti). A nuisance is further defined as “A nuisance is an unreasonable use of property which causes injury or damage to another in the legitimate enjoyment of his rights of person or property": 28 P. L. Encyc. 140, § 1.” You have a reasonable use of your property: stargazing. By lighting their house up (needlessly, it seems), your neighbors are interfering with that reasonable use. For lighting, however, Pennsylvania requires “that if the intensity of light shining from adjoining land is strong enough to seriously disturb a person of ordinary sensibilities or interfere with an occupation which is no more than ordinarily susceptible to light, it is a nuisance; if not, there is no cause of action.” This concerned a business, and the people complaining of excess lights were found to have no case. However, the court then required that the defendants (a golf course with a load of lights) install shielding on six different poles.

I think this is important because there is no crime in asking your neighbor in a polite and courteous manner, to turn their exterior lights off if they bother you. At the same time, we as astronomers are more sensitive to exterior lights, however, we should be free from overly intensive light coming from our neighbors. Basically, as long as you act in good faith in dealing with your neighbors, they will most likely be unable to bring any suits against you.