Bassett v. Salisbury Manufacturing Co.
Supreme Court of New Hampshire
Case. The declaration is set forth at length in 28 N. H. 438. The writ was dated August 17, 1849. At the trial, the plaintiff limited his claim, for the purposes of that trial only, to the damage caused by the defendants’ dam to the lot of thirty-three aci’es, described in the declaration. The plans used on the trial were be referred to in the argument. Said lot is situated in Kingston, about half a mile from Powow river.
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Case. The declaration is set forth at length in 28 N. H. 438. The writ was dated August 17, 1849. At the trial, the plaintiff limited his claim, for the purposes of that trial only, to the damage caused by the defendants’ dam to the lot of thirty-three aci’es, described in the declaration. The plans used on the trial were be referred to in the argument. Said lot is situated in Kingston, about half a mile from Powow river. The natural drainage of the lot, and of other adjacent swampy lands, is into the river, above the defendants’ dam. The surface of the lot is higher than the ordinary level…
1Opinion of the CourtBartlett, J.
No land-owner has an absolute and unqualified right to the unaltered natural drainage or percolation to or from his neighbor’s land. In general it would be impossible for a land-owner to avoid disturbing the natural percolation or drainage, without a practical abandonment of all improvement or beneficial enjoyment of his land. Any doctrine that would forbid all action of a landowner, affecting the relations as to percolation or drainage between his own and his néighbors’ lánds, would in effect deprive him of his property; and so far from being an application of the maxim, “ cujus est solum,”…
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