Inhabitants of Norton v. Hodges
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Complaint under the mill act, Gen. Sts. c. 149, setting forth that Alexander Hodges, Benjamin A. Chace, and the Digbton Manufacturing Company, severally owned and were occupying mill privileges and mills on Three Mile River, and erected and were maintaining a reservoir dam on Rumford River, a tributary of Three Mile River, for the use and benefit of their mills below, thereby flowing the complainants’ land, &c.
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Complaint under the mill act, Gen. Sts. c. 149, setting forth that Alexander Hodges, Benjamin A. Chace, and the Digbton Manufacturing Company, severally owned and were occupying mill privileges and mills on Three Mile River, and erected and were maintaining a reservoir dam on Rumford River, a tributary of Three Mile River, for the use and benefit of their mills below, thereby flowing the complainants’ land, &c. The respondents denied that they erected or were maintaining the reservoir dam; and alleged that it was erected, maintained and owned by the Wading River Reservoir Company, a…
1Opinion of the CourtColt, J.
The allegation in the complaint, that the respondents have erected a dam on Rumford River for the use and benefit of their mills below,is not supported by the facts admitted or proved. The dam was erected and is maintained by a corporation specially chartered for that purpose, and authorized to construct and maintain reservoirs for the supply of mills on certain rivers therein named, including the Rumford, and to hold real and personal estate for that purpose.
The remedy under the mill act is against the person or persons erecting and maintaining a mill and dam to raise water for its use; Gen.…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Norris v. DoniphanCourt of Appeals of Kentucky · 1863
3Cited by3 opinions
- Cosmopolitan Trust Co. v. CohenMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1923
- Brown v. DeNormandieSupreme Judicial Court of Maine · 1924
- Goodwin v. GibbsSupreme Judicial Court of Maine · 1879