Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

88 Mass. 201

Randall v. McLaughlin

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided January 15, 1863

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1863-01-15

<p>If a declaration seta forth that the plaintiff was entitled to a drain or sewer over the a» fendant’s adjoining land, and that “ the defendant wrongfully stopped up the said drain or sewer, or obstructed the plaintiff in examining into and repairing said sewer,” and that the water which ought to have flowed through the same was thereby prevented from flowing from the plaintiff’s land, and at the trial it appears in evidence that the defendant refused to allow the plaintiff to enter upon his land and examine the drain, but this is not made a substantial ground of damages in the plaintiff’s requests for instructions, no exception lies on the part of the plaintiff to an instruction to the jury that, if they found as a fact that there was no obstruction in the drain, or that the plaintiff could have removed all the difficulties on his own premises, and without going upon the premises of the defendant, their verdict should be for the defendant.</p>

Decided 1863-01-15

Bigelow, C. J.

¶1The gist of the plaintiff’s claim for damages, as set out in the declaration, is, that the drain was obstructed, whereby water was caused to flow back, to the injury of the plaintiff’s premises. No averment is made by which the refusal of the defendant to permit the plaintiff to enter on the defendant’s estate and examine the drain is made a substantial ground of damages, nor does it appear by the exceptions that any claim was made at the trial to support the action for any cause other than the alleged obstruction in the drain, which the defendant would not suffer- the plaintiff to remove. The allegation of the right to examine the condition of the drain is made only as incidental to the main averment, that the drain was obstructed ; and the refusal of the defendant to allow it to be examined is averred only as one of the causes which prevented the plaintiff from clearing out the passage for the water, so that it might flow off freely. Under a count so framed, the plaintiff cannot ask to maintain his action solely on the ground that the right to examine the drain was denied to him, and for that cause only to recover nominal damages.

¶2It follows from this view of the cause of action, as set out in the declaration, that the jury in finding that there was no obstruction in the drain have negatived the existence in fact of the whole cause of action, and that, conceding to the plaintiff all the rights he claims in the defendant’s premises, he has been unable to show any violation of them according to the averments in his declaration. Exceptions overruled.

/88/mass/201 · .json · Public domain