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76 Me. 94

Wilson v. Campbell

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine

Decided April 2, 1884

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine · decided 1884-04-02

On report. Complaint for flowage of plaintiff’s land in Deblois on the Narragaugus river by water drawn from the defendants’ dam across the river above, at Beddington Lake, during the summer months when the natural flow of the stream was not sufficient to overflow the plaintiff’s land. The complaint did not allege that the mill and dam were erected upon the lands of the defendants. contended that the words flow” and flowage” in the mill act did not mean simply to flow back.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1884-04-02

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently August 1960

3 state decisions

10188418901900191019201930194019501960decided

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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Virgin, J.

¶1Even if the complaint be amended as proposed so as to show that the mill and dam are erected upon the land of the respondents as is required by E. S., c. 92, § 1, and Jones v. Skinner, 61 Maine, 25, these allegations cannot remedy another quite as serious a difficulty. For only he can recover damages under the mill-act "whose lands are damaged by being flowed by a mill-dam,” E. S., c. 92, § 4. This language, especially when considered in connection with other provisions of the chapter, evidently refers to lands flowed by water raised by the dam, and situated above the darn. Thus § 3 provides for a regulation of the time of flowing and the height of the water; § 9 for the appointment of commissioners to determine how far the flowing is necessary; § § 12 and 13 forbid flowing when prohibited by the commissioners and furnish a new remedy in certain cases. Damages caused by water let out of the dam is nowhere hinted at in the statute. If the dam is rightfully built, the statute provides the remedy for persons injured in their lands by flowing caused thereby; but the water thus rightfully accumulated must be let out with ordinary care, or the party will be liable at common law for negligence. Frye v. Moor, 53 Maine, 583.

¶2Moreover the dam cannot be maintained for any purpose other than that of raising water for working a water-mill. E. S., c. *9692, § 1. Dixon v. Eaton, 68 Maine, 542. The Massachusetts statute is different including flowing below or above the dam.

¶3Complainant nonsuit.

Peters, C. J., Daneorth, Libbey and Syhonds, JJ., concurred.
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