Case, for flowing land. Plea, the general issue. Facts found by referees, with a general award for the defendants. A dam and mill were erected at the outlet of Grafton pond in 1818, the dam has been maintained there in substantially the same condition ever since, and the dam and water have been used in the same manner without interruption. From 1828 to 1849, Phineas Gage owned the dam and mill, and one of the tracts of land claimed to have been wrongfully flowed.
Decided 1881-12-05
Stanley, J.
¶1
The testimony of Hiram Truell as to the operations of Phineas Gage was competent on the question of Gage’s acquiring a prescriptive right to flow land lie did not own.
¶2
A complaint of the flowage, made by one not interested in the land, to some other disinterested person, not communicated to or
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participated in by the parties to this suit, or those under whom they claim, and not resulting in an actual interference with the mill-owner’s use of the dam or water, would not be evidence of a legal interruption of the use, or constitute an apparent link in the chain of proof as to the fact or the character of the flowage. The question whether the witness Gile had heard any complaints from anybody was rightly excluded. If the witness could give an answer that would be admissible, the referees could properly require the question to be put in á form more specific, and less calculated to introduce irrelevant matter.
