Use your own property so as not to injure another's.

Explanation

Ownership is not license for abuse — every man must exercise his property rights with due regard to his neighbor's equal rights.

Where this applies

• A factory owner dumps chemical waste from his manufacturing process into a creek that runs through his property and onto his neighbor's land downstream — he has the right to use his own property, but not in a way that poisons his neighbor's water supply.
• A homeowner installs floodlights so bright they illuminate the entire neighborhood at night, preventing neighbors from sleeping — his right to light his own property does not extend to making his neighbors' homes uninhabitable.
• A rancher allows his cattle to overgraze his pasture until the topsoil erodes onto the neighboring farm, burying crops — he must use his property so as not to injure his neighbor's land.

See also

• 5.2.2 Whose is the soil, his it is even to the sky above and to the depths below.
• 7.4.1 There may be damage without legal injury.