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82 Neb. 528

Arthur v. Glover

Nebraska Supreme Court

Decided October 22, 1908

Nebraska Supreme Court · decided 1908-10-22

<p>1. Surface “Water: Drainage. “Every proprietor may, lawfully improve his property by doing what is reasonably necessary for this purpose, and, unless guilty of some act of negligence in the manner of its execution, will not be answerable to an adjoining proprietor, although he may thereby cause surface water to flow on the premises of the latter to his damage.” Aldritt v. Fleischauer, 74 Neb. 66, approved and followed.</p> <p>.2. —;—: -. “An owner of land has the right in the interest of good husbandry to drain ponds or basins thereon of a temporary character, and which have no natural outlet or course of flow, by .discharging the waters thereof by means of an artificial channel into a natural surface-water drain on his own property, and through such drain over the land of another proprietor in the general' course of drainage in that locality, even though the flow in such natural drain is thereby increased over the lower estate, and provided that this is done in a reasonable and careful manner and without negligence.” Aldritt v. Fleischauer, 74 Neb. 66, approved and followed,</p> <p>3. Waters: Drainage. Two or more adjoining landowners may lawfully join in the construction of a ditch solely upon the premises of one thereof, where the object and purpose is to drain a pond situated partly on the lands of all of said proprietors.</p>

Relies on Todd v. York County · Aldritt v. Fleischauer · Town v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1908-10-22

How this case has been cited

Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently November 1987

12 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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Barnes, C. J.,

¶1concurring.

¶2The opinion of the commissioner meets with my approval. I do not understand it in any way to be a departure from the common law rule that a party has no right to collect surface water in a ditch or drain, and discharge it or permit it to flow onto the land of another without the latter’s consent, as we first held in Davis v. Londgreen, 8 Neb. 43, and to which we have adhered in an unbroken line of decisions down to and including Town v. Missouri P. R. Co., 50 Neb. 768. There .can be no doubt but that we are firmly committed to this rule, and it is not our purpose to depart from it. My concurrence is based on the fact that the evidence in this case takes it out of the common law rule, and brings it clearly within the rule announced in Todd v. York County, 72 Neb. 207, and Aldritt v. Fleischauer, 74 Neb. 66. I am of opinion that the evidence in this case fairly shows that the waterway, into which the defendant proposes to drain the pond situated on his land, when it reaches the plaintiff’s premises, does not lose its distinctive character as a waterway.. It is true that it widens out somewhat, and for a short distance allows the water to spread and cover more surface than it does where it is turned into the ravine. Still the flow at the place in question is unobstructed, and is continuous until it reaches Waggoner creek.

¶3For this reason, I concur in the conclusion reached by the commissioner.

Letton, J.

¶4I dissent. I think the facts in the case bring it within the rule of Davis v. Londgreen, and that the doctrine of Todd v. York County and Aldritt v. Fleischauer is not applicable.

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