United Electric Coal Companies v. Brown

CLAY, Commissioner.

Appellee plaintiffs recovered a $5,000 judgment for alleged permanent damage to their farm which they claimed was caused .by the discharge of “copperas” water from appellant defendant’s strip mining operation.

In 1952 plaintiffs purchased a 286 acre farm in Hopkins County. Its most produc*503tive part consists of about 70 acres of bottom land traversed by Buffalo Creek. Several times a year this bottom is flooded by the overflow. A mile or more above the farm, in the vicinity of the headwaters of the creek, defendant had for many years been engaged in the strip mining of coal.

Acc…