The key facts

  • Austria's Supreme Court rejected the plaintiff's appeal and upheld the ruling in favor of the pond owners
  • Earlier, experts recorded noise exceeding the limit by 4 decibels, and the district court banned croaking from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
  • The defendants tried to reduce the noise by releasing a pike into the pond

The years-long frog dispute ended in favor of the pond owners

Austria's Supreme Court has officially allowed frogs to croak at night, ending a years-long legal battle between neighbors in the municipality of Pashing. This was reported by the outlet Heute, which is cited by Gazeta.Ru.

How the conflict developed

The lawsuit was prompted by the fact that frogs in the pond on the defendants' property croaked at night and kept a neighbor awake who slept with his window open. Experts determined that the animals were four decibels louder than permitted, after which the district court sided with the plaintiff: the neighbors were ordered to stop the croaking from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., and faced a fine of €30,000. The defendants tried to comply with the ruling using environmentally friendly methods — for example, they released a pike into the pond.

The courts' final position

In the regional court, victory went to the pond owners: the judge found that the frogs had appeared in the pond on their own and that their croaking was natural. The Supreme Court rejected the neighbor's appeal and upheld the second-instance ruling. Thus, the final outcome contradicts the original district court decision, which had required nighttime noise to be limited.