Williamson v. Lock's Creek Canal Co.
Supreme Court of North Carolina
■ Action for Diverting Water — Evidence. Civil Aotion for Damages, tried at Fall Term, 1876, of Moore Superior Court, before Furches, J. This action was instituted in Cumberland and on affidavit of plaintiff removed to Moore.
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■ Action for Diverting Water — Evidence. Civil Aotion for Damages, tried at Fall Term, 1876, of Moore Superior Court, before Furches, J. This action was instituted in Cumberland and on affidavit of plaintiff removed to Moore. The plaintiff had a mill on Lock’s Creek and brought this action to recover damages for the diversion of the natural flow of water (which in part supplied said mill) caused by cutting a canal by means of which the waters of Lock’s Creek and Evans’ Creek were carried into the Cape Fear River above the plaintiff’s mill. The facts bearing upon the point decided in this…
1Opinion of the CourtPeaksoN, C. J.
In looking over the papers a point presented itself which is fatal to the plaintiff's recovery. It is this;
The complaint shows that the canal was cut in 1873, but. it nowhere appears at what time the mill was built.
The issue ; was the plaintiff the owner of the land and in the possession of it at the time the action was commenced ?' does not enable the Court to see that the mill was built and the water appropriated to its use before the charter of the defendant in 1871-’72.
The merits of the action rest upon this fact; for manifestly, if the defendant had acquired the right to drain the-swamp…
2Cited by1 opinion
- Williamson v. Look's Creek Canal Co.Supreme Court of North Carolina · 1878