Ditch v. Hess

UHLENHOPP, Justice.

This appeal involves a problem of surface water on six pieces of real estate— four farms, a lane, and >a railroad right-of-way. The accompanying sketch shows the six pieces, which lie between Iowa Highway 13 and the Cedar River in Linn County, Iowa. The area in question is quite flat.

Surface water flows from high ground northeast of the highway to the southwest. Elevations on plats show that in a natural state, most of the water in the general area where a culvert now crosses the highway must have flowed approximately west onto what is now the Reilly land and a lesser…