In October 2002, Marc and Jennie Stanfield brought an action seeking damages in excess of $750,000 and injunctive relief against Waste Management of Georgia, Inc. for the nuisance and trespass, including odor, noise, rodents, and insects, caused by a Waste Management transfer station located near the Stanfields’ house. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Waste Management, and the trial court denied injunctive relief. On appeal in Case No. A07A1479, the Stanfields argue that the trial court erred when it granted a directed verdict and failed to charge on the trespass claim and when it admitted written reports from a county police officer. In Case No. A07A1480, Waste Management asserts that the trial court erred when it failed to conform the judgment to the jury’s verdict. We affirm in both cases. Where a jury returns a verdict and it has the approval of the trial judge, the same must be affirmed on appeal if there is any evidence to support it as the jurors are the sole and exclusive judges of the weight and credit given the evidence. The appellate court must construe the evidence with every inference and presumption in favor of upholding the verdict, and after judgment, the evidence must be construed to uphold the verdict even where the evidence is in conflict. Citation omitted. Booker v. Older Americans Council of Middle Georgia, Inc. , 278 Ga. App. 407 629 SE2d 69 2006. So viewed, the record shows that at the time the Stanfields purchased their 1000-square-foot home in 1987, the land behind the property, including an active railroad track, was zoned for general industrial use. The transfer station, built in 1995, processes municipal solid waste, corrugated cardboard, and construction and demolition waste. Although Jennie Stanfield complained of breathing problems resulting from the station, evidence showed that inhalation of the odor control products used by Waste Management is not hazardous, and that Jennie was a smoker with a history of emphysema in her family. Evidence also showed that the Stanfields’ rodent and insect problems could have been caused by a county drainage ditch bordering their property on two sides, by their storage of plants and chicken manure in the large greenhouse on their property, and/or their refusal to use any pest control besides the baiting of traps with food, including pecans. Of the sixty investigations begun by Glynn County authorities concerning the transfer station, only three resulted in citations.
Just before the close of the Stanfields’ case, the trial court granted Waste Management’s motion for directed verdict on the issue of damages to realty because, as the Stanfields’ counsel confirmed, they did not present any evidence on the subject. The Stanfields did not object to this ruling. Shortly afterward, the trial court asked counsel to consider whether the trespass claim remained viable. The trial court later denied the Stanfields’ request for jury charges on trespass and granted Waste Management’s motion for directed verdict on that claim.
