Beaver Water & Irrigation Co. v. Emerson

Emerson brought suit against the company, plaintiff in error, for damages caused to his land by the breaking of the defendant’s réservoir. He had a verdict and judgment and the company brings error.

No negligence on the part of the defendant was proved at the trial. There was a claim that a reservoir above that of the defendant, owned by third parties, by the negligence of its owners burst and caused a flood that broke the dam of the defendant and thus caused the injury. The instructions ignored the lack of negligence in defendant and the claim of negligence in the upper owners.

The question…