Legal Opinion

Bates v. Inhabitants of Westborough

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided February 27, 1890PublishedCited by 52 opinions

Two ACTIONS OE tort, for flooding the plaintiffs’ premises with surface water.. Writs dated December 22, 1887. The declarations alleged that the plaintiffs, in carrying on a manufacturing business, successively occupied a parcel of land in Westborough, the plaintiff in the first case before December 1, 1885, and the plaintiffs in the second case since that time.

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Two ACTIONS OE tort, for flooding the plaintiffs’ premises with surface water.. Writs dated December 22, 1887. The declarations alleged that the plaintiffs, in carrying on a manufacturing business, successively occupied a parcel of land in Westborough, the plaintiff in the first case before December 1, 1885, and the plaintiffs in the second case since that time. The eighth count in the declaration in each ease alleged that the land in question was drained by a ditch entering a common drain, which crossed Brigham Street, a public way, and the Boston and Albany Railroad, and thence passed into…

1Opinion of the CourtHolmes, J.

These are two actions of tort, depending upon the same state of facts, to recover for the overflowing of the plaintiffs’ land with water from the defendant’s drain, and set back in the plaintiffs’ drain. There was evidence tending to *180show the following facts, which we assume to be true for the purposes of this decision.

The plaintiffs had gained a prescriptive right to discharge water from their land by a drain to a culvert running under Brigham Street, the Boston and Albany Railroad, and beyond, the water being carried from the farther side, of late years, by a box drain. There is a system of…

2Cases cited33 opinions

  1. Hill v. City of BostonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1877
  2. Oliver v. City of WorcesterMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1869
  3. Haskell v. City of New BedfordMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1871
  4. Tindley v. City of SalemMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1884
  5. Merrifield v. City of WorcesterMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1872

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3Cited by52 opinions

  1. Belkus v. City of BrocktonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1933
  2. Allen v. City of BostonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1893
  3. City of Portsmouth v. Mitchell Manufacturing Co.Ohio Supreme Court · 1925
  4. Johnson v. City of SomervilleMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1907
  5. Hynes v. BrewerMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1907

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