An Italian couple has won a two-decade legal struggle in which they used a post-World War II international convention to demonstrate the maximum toilet flush volume allowed.
According to Rome daily La Repubblica, the event began as a typical neighborhood fight. But it lasted more than two decades before reaching Italy’s Supreme Court last week.
It all began in 2003. The four brothers in the northwest Italian city of La Spezia built a new toilet in their apartment.
The couple next door promptly complained that the toilet flushed frequently during the night. The flush was so loud that it woke them up each time.
The couple went to court. Thereby, requesting that to fix the noise problem and to pay damages. But the trial judge dismissed their case.
They then chose to take their case to Genoa’s appeals court. It resulted in a favorable inquiry of the two flats.
According to the report, investigators discovered “a large excess of three decibels over the threshold required by statute.”
To put it another way, that toilet flush was simply too loud.
Since the toilet was constructed in 2003, the four brothers have been required to change the WC flush location in the flat and pay a yearly fee of 500 euros.
The four brothers eventually agreed to take “the flush case” to the Court of Cassation, Italy’s highest court of appeals.
The couple won in the end. The top court cited the toilet flush’s negative impact on their quality of life as an infringement of a constitutionally guaranteed right to “respect one’s own private and family life,” as protected by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
After 19 years of struggle, the four brothers’ fates were finally sealed. The terrible conflict was laid to rest for good.
