Ball v. Nye
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort, alleging that the defendant wilfully caused and negligently permitted the discharge of filthy matter from the vault of his barn into the plaintiff’s cellar and well, tainting the water in the well and rendering the cellar unwholesome.
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Tort, alleging that the defendant wilfully caused and negligently permitted the discharge of filthy matter from the vault of his barn into the plaintiff’s cellar and well, tainting the water in the well and rendering the cellar unwholesome. At the trial in the superior court, before Devens, J., there was much evidence, which was reported in full in the bill of exceptions, and by which it appeared that the plaintiff and the defendant owned adjoining lots on East Union Street in Springfield, which sloped so that the defendant’s land was higher than the plaintiff’s; that in 1864 the plaintiff…
1Opinion of the CourtFoster, J.
To suffer filthy water from a vault to percolate or filter through the soil into the land of a contiguous proprietor, to the injury of his well and cellar, where it is done habitually and within the knowledge of the party who maintains the vault, whether it passes above ground or below, is of itself an actionable tort. Under such circumstances the reasonable precaution which the law requires is, effectually to exclude the filth from the neighbor’s land; and not to do so is of itself negligence. In the present instance, there was no pretence of a sudden and unavoidable accident which could not…
2Cited by38 opinions
- Gilmore v. DriscollMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1877
- Shipley v. Fifty AssociatesMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1870
- Gorham v. GrossMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1878
- Anderson v. W.R. Grace & Co.District Court, D. Massachusetts · 1986
- Colton v. OnderdonkCalifornia Supreme Court · 1886
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