Nashville, Chattanooga St. Louis Ry. v. Beard

BROWN, J.(1) The case was submitted to the jury on the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh counts of the complaint as amended. The averments of the eighth, ninth, and tenth counts are to the effect that the defendant collected waters in an artificial channel — a ditch — thereby diverting its natural flow, and conveyed it into the creek flowing through or near to the plaintiff’s land in such volume as to overtax the natural capacity of the creek, thereby proximately causing the water to flow over the plaintiff’s land, washing the soil and making deposits thereon that impaired or destroyed the…