Cardwell v. Norfolk & Western Railway

Clare, O. J.

This is an action for damages to land and crops caused by tbe defendant collecting surface water on the upper side of its roadbed and diverting it through culverts and emptying it on the plaintiff’s bottom-land. The plaintiff admits that the water from three of these culverts flows into ditches which carry it into the plaintiff’s main farm ditch, and thence into the river, without damage. But he alleges that the other three culverts empty the water on the plaintiff’s bottom-land, where there are no ditches, and that this diversion thus drowns out 17 out of 54 acres thereof.

There…