Italian couple win 19-year battle with neighbours over noisy loo by Elly Blake, Jan 18, 2022, Evening Standard
Italy’s top court has enshrined the right to protection from loud lavatories after a 19-year battle between a tired couple and their neighbour’s flushing toilet.
The case began in 2003 when the couple, living in a flat near La Spezia, complained that a new bathroom installed by their neighbours was so loud it stopped them from getting a good night’s sleep.
Their bedstead was right up against the connecting wall to an apartment where the toilet had been installed.
The couple said their bedroom was too small to allow for the furniture to be rearranged, and took the case to court in the city of La Spezia, saying the noise of the flush was “intolerable”.
Their complaint was rejected by a judge.
Not backing down, they then referred the case to an appeal court in Genoa, which ordered an inspection of the two apartments and found that the flush was so loud that it “prejudiced the quality of life” of the couple.
Unhappy with that verdict, the four brothers who owned the apartment with the lavatory in question challenged the court’s judgment, taking the case to the Supreme Court in Rome.
But judges there have now ruled in favour of the couple, saying that the noise from the lavatory “infringed on their right to a good night’s sleep”.
The court ordered the brothers to pay their neighbours €500 (£420) compensation for every year since the complaint was first made in 2003 – amounting to €9,500.
One Italian newspaper, Il Giornale, said the story, while humorous in some respects, pointed to systemic failings.
“This is the reality of the judiciary and the reason why the Italian justice system doesn’t work,” it said.
“In far less time than this case took, Albert Einstein wrote the theory of relativity, explaining the whole Universe.
“At the judicial level, we are a great big, gigantic clogged loo.”
Italy’s justice system is notoriously slow, with cases taking years and even decades to grind through the courts. 
Canada’s dirty legal industry is as bad if not worse, unless you are rich, a rapist, pedophile, law-violating corporation, dirty politician, lying lawyer, etc.
Court rules on two-decade legal battle over loud flushing toilet, Italy’s Supreme Court has ruled that a loud flushing toilet violated the human rights of a couple living in a neighboring flat by Toronto99, Jan 19, 2022
A couple has won a drawn-out legal fight over a loud flushing toilet after Italy’s Supreme Court found that their human rights were violated. The battle kicked off in 2003 after four brothers who lived near Italy’s La Spezia city built a new toilet in their flat. Their next-door neighbors swiftly complained that the flushing sound during the night was so loud that it woke them up.
Their bed was right up against the wall connecting to the apartment where the toilet had been installed.
The initial complaint, seeking the resolution of the noise problem and damages, was dismissed by a judge. Genoa’s appeals court overturned that dismissal and stated after an investigation that the flush sound was “a large excess of three decibels over the threshold required.”
The four brothers were ordered to modify the flush and pay around €500 ($567.40) for every year since the toilet was installed. They took the case to Italy’s highest appeals court, which also backed the couple, agreeing the flush had a negative effect on their life. Specifically, the court stated that the flush violated the constitutionally given right to “respect one’s own private and family life” that the couple was entitled to under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The defeat in Italy’s highest court marked the end of a nearly 20-year legal battle for the neighbors. As such, the ruling from the Genoa appeals court stands, and the brothers have to pay the fee that was outlined, as well as move the water tank that makes the noise.
Italian newspaper Il Giornale, mocking the slow pace of the country’s judicial system, joked that the toilet dispute had taken longer than it did for Albert Einstein to write his theory of relativity.
Encana’s own noise study proved the company was violating AER’s noise directive by more than 5 decibels (even though the company sleazily and illegally moved their microphone in secret when I was away, to a location where much of the compressor noise was blocked by an outbuilding), and violated my legal right to quiet enjoyment of my home and property:
AER came to Encana’s rescue, and fudged the data to cover the company’s law violating ass:
The AER and Encana/Ovintiv knew full well the company’s illegal noise was disrupting my sleep, night after night, for years (I called and wrote them often, including to VP Stacy Knull in the middle of the night). And that it disrupted the sleep of my dogs. My dogs are dead now, but still the compressor noise violates my legal right to quiet enjoyment of my home and land and appears to have driven many song birds away from nesting on my property.
Italy’s High Court: Loud Toilet Flush Is Violation Of Human Rights Antti T. Nissinen January 18, 2022 WORLDCRUNCH
A not-so-neighborly Italian saga that extends from the porcelain depths of our most basic needs to the altar of European justice.
An Italian couple has won a two-decade-long court battle that invoked an international treaty signed after World War II in order to prove the acceptable volume of a toilet flush.
The ordeal started as a typical neighborhood quarrel, yet spanned nearly two decades and eventually made its way up to Italy’s Highest Court this week, Rome daily La Repubblica reports.
It all began in 2003, when four brothers built a new toilet in their apartment located in the La Spezia province of northwest Italy. The husband and wife living next door soon complained that the toilet was used frequently during the night, and the flush was so loud it woke them up each time.
A matter of three decibels
The couple took their case to court, demanding a resolution of the noise problem and the payment of damages; but the trial judge rejected their case.
The couple decided to take their case to the appeals court of Genoa, triggering an inspection of the two flats that ultimately found in their favor. Investigators reported that they’d discovered “a significant excess of three decibels over the standards required by legislation.” Translation: that flush was too damn loud.
The four brothers were required to change the WC flush location in the flat, and to pay 500 euros per year, beginning from the toilet’s installation in 2003.
European Convention on Human Rights
The four brothers ultimately decided to bring “the flush case” to the Court of Cassation, the highest court of appeal in Italy.
But finally the high court ruled in favor of the couple, considering the impact the flush had on their quality of life as an infringement of a right “to respect one’s own private and family life,” constitutionally guaranteed protected by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). …
Loud loos: the court case that ruled flushing at night was anti-social, An Italian couple spent 19 years trying to silence their neighbours’ toilet habits by The Guardian, Jan 19, 2022
… That the sound of flushing coming through the wall exceeded the legal limit by three decibels …
Actually, three decibels is a significant increase in sound. …
Anyway, the supreme court ruled that infringing on the right to rest had consequences for the constitutionally protected right to health. …
Refer also to:
My lawyers were Murray Klippenstein (lying lead) and Cory Wanless (lawyer in training). More on the About and Lawsuit Pages.
New study: Songbirds’ reproductive success reduced by natural gas compressor noise.
University of Michigan researchers on noise: Turn down the volume for health’s sake
Fracking firm stops drilling in Balcombe after “rattling” noise complaints