Barcliff v. Norfolk Southern Railroad

Tbis is an action for damages for .diverting surface water from tbe right of way of tbe defendant and ponding it back upon tbe plaintiff. Tbe defendant in building its roadbed in 1881 passed tbrougb several thousand acres of low, boggy, and uncleared land, a portion of which formed a basin in which all water falling on this area and surrounding lands accumulated and stood until it passed off by percolation or evaporation. The defendant, in order to maintain its roadbed through this basin, found it necessary to drain somewhere, and for that purpose cut two 6-foot lateral ditches along its…