City of Houston v. Bryan

WILLIAMS, Associate Justice.

Defendant in error, Mrs. Bryan, who was plaintiff below, owned a homestead situated at the corner of Main and Calhoun Streets in the city of Houston. When her homestead was improved in 1869, there was a ditch, known as “the city ditch,” kept open by the city, which ran along Calhoun Street, passing by her property, and which afforded sufficient drainage for that and the neighboring lands.

Subsequently the city dug ditches along other streets above her property, which opened into the city ditch at right angles, thus conducting into it a volume of water larger than…