White v. Chapin
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort for obstructing and filling up a ditch upon the defendant’s land, through which the plaintiff claimed the right to have the water pass off from his land.
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Tort for obstructing and filling up a ditch upon the defendant’s land, through which the plaintiff claimed the right to have the water pass off from his land. At the trial in the superior court, before Ames, J., William B. Dickinson testified that fifty-two years ago his father bought the land now owned by the plaintiff; that it was then boggy and covered uTith alders; thatv one Abby then owned the land now owned by the defendant, over which there was a ditch which was substantially in the same condition as when filled up by the defendant; that his father cut a ditch to connect with Abby’s…
1Opinion of the CourtFoster, J.
This is an action for the disturbance of an easement which the plaintiff claims in the premises of the defendant upon the following state of facts: An ancient ditch, the origin of which is unknown, began on the premises of the defendant, and, passing through the land of two other proprietors, emptied into a brook at the distance of half a mile. Fifty-one years before the trial, one Dickinson, who was then the owner of the plaintiff’s lot, dug a ditch for its drainage, and connected it with the more ancient ditch, so as to empty into it, and, through it, into the brook. Nothing appears as to…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Norton v. VolentineSupreme Court of Vermont · 1842
3Cited by1 opinion
- Pensacola Gas Co. v. PebleySupreme Court of Florida · 1889