Eimers v. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co.

First. Appellants’ first proposition is true with the limitation that no landowner has the legal right in Illinois to drain even mere surface waters to any natural watercourse other than the ones to which they would naturally flow by way of their own natural water shed. No landowner has the right to divert surface waters or the flow of watercourses from their natural channels and thereby overflow the lands of another without rendering to him proper compensation for his damages by reason of such overflow. Where a railroad company diverts the flow of a watercourse or the flow of mere surface…