Weir v. Wilmes

DIXON, Judge.

The plaintiffs Weir appeal from the jury’s verdict in favor of the defendants Wilmes in this surface water case. The sole issue is a claim of instructional error.

The parties filed a stipulation. From that stipulation and the pleadings, the facts appear to be as follows. Defendants, the upper landowners, installed drainage tile in a portion of their farmland, thus enabling the surface water on their land to flow into a pre-existing natural drainage ditch, a waterway. The plaintiffs’ and defendants’ farms are separated by a gravel road but the waterway leads onto the plaintiffs’…