Harrisonville v. W. S. Dickey Clay Manufacturing Co.

Mr. Justice Brandéis

delivered the opinion of the Court,

W. S. Dickey Clay Manufacturing Company, a Delaware Corporation, owns a stock farm of 300 acres lying near the sewage disposal plant of the City of Harrison-ville, Missouri. A small, meandering, intermittent stream called Town Creek flows through a detached portion of the farm, consisting of 100 acres, devoted solely to pasturage. Since 1923, a drain pipe has discharged into the creek, at a point in the pasture, the effluent from the disposal plant of the City’s general sewage system. In 1928, the Company brought, in the federal court for…