Kennedy v. Niles Water Supply Co.

Proprietors of the land upon the banks of a stream, or a lake, have a common usufructuary right to the water as it is in a state of nature.

So long as the use made of the water by a common proprietor is the common use, an excessive use, however long continued, will not ripen into a prescriptive right, so long as other common owners are not injured thereby, or prevented, or excluded from making such use as of common right belongs to them. If a wrongful use is made of the water of a running stream by a common proprietor, as if he finally diverts the water, such use is by common consent presumed…