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55 Miss. 476

Chapman v. Copeland

Mississippi Supreme Court

Decided October 15, 1877

Mississippi Supreme Court · decided 1877-10-15

Hon. L. C. Balch, Special Judge, by agreement of parties, Hon. J. W. C. Watson being disqualified. In 1872 the defendant in error cut a ditch, by which, it is-alleged, the flow of the waters of a certain creek called Carr’s Creek was diverted from his own land and thrown upon an adjoining plantation, then belonging to the estate of Robert Lusk, deceased, but which the plaintiff in error bought in June, 1873.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1877-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently December 1970

5 state decisions

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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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Campbell, J.,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2The evidence in this case is very conflicting, and this made it especially important that there should be no conflict in the instructions to the jury. The instructions for the plaintiff propound the law correctly. The second instruction for defendant directs the jury to find for the defendant, unless the plaintiff had sustained damage “ in amount appreciable and ascertainable by evidence to the satisfaction of the jury.” This denies to plaintiff nominal damages, and requires him to prove special damage, as the consequence of the diversion of the water of Carr’s Creek from its natural course, by the ditch of defendant, so as to flow on plaintiff’s land. This is not the law. 2 Greenl. on Ev., sec. 474; Ang. on Watercourses, sec. 429 et seq.; ib. 416.

¶3The third instruction for defendant is erroneous. If plaintiff- suffered damage after he purchased the land, -from the ditch of defendant, he is entitled to recover, whether the defendant did anj'thing to the ditch after plaintiff’s purchase or .not. Ang. on Water-courses, sec. 399 et seq.

¶4For the error in giving these instructions for the defendant, we reverse the judgment and remand the cause for a new trial.

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