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217 N.C. 488

8 S.E.2d 605

Oates v. Algodon Manufacturing Co.

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1940-05-01

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1940-05-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently November 2020

4 state decisions

20194019501960197019801990200020102020decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Stacy, C. J.

¶1 The court instructed the jury that the plaintiff was not entitled to recover permanent damages against the Algodon Manufacturing Company, but only such damages as had accrued from the beginning of the pollution of the stream up to the time of trial, Webb v. Chemical Co., 170 N. C., 662; 87 S. E., 633, “and that damage would be the difference that you find between the value of his land immediately prior to the pollution of the stream, if you find it was polluted, and the reasonable market value of his land immediately after it was polluted and in addition thereto, any inconvenience and annoyance by way of odors suffered by him to his land, any damages by virtue of not being able to use- the stream for the watering of his stock and any other usual use the stream could be put to during those dates.” Exception.

¶2 The trial court inadvertently fell into error in stating that the measure of damages would be the difference between the reasonable market value of the land immediately before and after the injury. “In cases of this kind, when the damage is due to a cause that may be removed, or a nuisance that may be abated, the measure of damage is not the difference in the market value of the land before and after the injury, but is estimated by comparing its productiveness before and after the flooding. Spilman v. Navigation Co., 74 N. C., 675; 16 A. & E., 984.” Adams v. R. R., 110 N. C., 325, 14 S. E., 857; Jones v. Kramer, 133 N. C., 446, 45 S. E., 827; Garrett v. Comrs., 74 N. C., 388.

¶3 For the error, as indicated, the appellant is entitled to a new trial. It is so ordered.

¶4 New trial.

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