Pye v. City of Mankato

• Decision Date: 31 January 1887
• Citation: 36 Minn. 373
• Parties: JULIA L. PYE <I>vs.</I> CITY OF MANKATO.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

36 Minn. 373

JULIA L. PYEvs.

CITY OF MANKATO.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

January 31, 1887.

Plaintiff brought this action in the district court for Blue Earth county to recover damages to a lot on Washington street in Mankato, resulting from the acts of defendant in collecting water and discharging it upon plaintiff's lot. A jury was waived, and the action tried before Severance, J., who ordered judgment for plaintiff. A new trial was refused, and the defendant appealed.

James Brown, for appellant.

Daniel Buck and Collester & Foster, for respondent.

MITCHELL, J.

The ground on which a new trial was asked, and the only point urged in this court, was that "the decision of the court is not justified by the evidence, and is contrary to law." As counsel for appellant nowhere indicates wherein the decision is not justified by the evidence, we shall assume that the findings of fact are supported by the evidence; thus leaving as the only question for consideration whether these findings justify the conclusion of law that plaintiff is entitled to recover. We shall assume, in favor of appellant, that this was "surface water," and not a "water-course." Indeed, upon the facts found by the court, there is no doubt whatever upon this point.

The material facts found are that originally this water, following a depression in the ground, flowed southerly, across Washington street, (easterly of plaintiff's premises,) and from thence finally found its way into the Minnesota river; that the city graded up Washington street some two feet above the natural surface of the ground, thus intercepting the flow of the water, as formerly, across that street. The city also constructed a gutter on the north side of Washington street, into which to gather up and carry this water westerly, and past plaintiff's premises, (which abutted on the north side of Washington street,) into the river; that this gutter was negligently and wrongfully constructed, wholly insufficient in capacity to contain and carry off the water, and, as a consequence, it overflowed and was cast in large and injurious quantities upon the land of plaintiff.

The law upon the subject of the liability of municipal corporations for injuries to private property, in consequence of being overflowed with surface water caused by improvements made or work done upon streets, is left in a state of great uncertainty by the adjudicated cases, among which there is much conflict. It is impossible to reconcile all of the cases on the subject, and hence we will confine ourselves to the statement of certain principles, which we think are settled by our own decisions, and then attempt to apply these principles to the facts of this case; and —

First. We hold that a municipal corporation is liable for damages caused to private property by grading streets when a private owner of the soil over which the streets are laid would be liable if improving it for his own use. O'Brien v. City of St. Paul, 25 Minn. 331; Dyer v. City of St. Paul, 27 Minn. 457, (8 N. W. Rep. 272;) McClure v. City of Red Wing, 28 Minn. 186, (9 N. W. Rep. 767;) Henderson v. City of Minneapolis, 32 Minn. 319, (20 N. W. Rep. 322.)

Second. We do not admit the doctrine of servitudes of the civil law, but have adopted the common-law rule that surface water is a common enemy, which each owner, in the necessary and proper improvement of his land, may get rid of as best he may, subject, however, to the restriction of the maxim that a man must so use his own as not unnecessarily to injure another. Alden v. City of Minneapolis, 24 Minn. 254, 262; O'Brien v. City of St. Paul, 25 Minn. 331; Hogenson v. St. Paul, M. & M. Ry. Co., 31 Minn. 224, (17 N. W. Rep. 374;) and consequently —

Third. A city is not liable for consequential injuries to adjoining property, resulting from raising the grade of a street, although the result may be to interfere with the flow of surface water, and cause it to accumulate on the premises of another. Lee v. City of Minneapolis, 22 Minn. 13; Alden v. Same, 24 Minn. 254, 263; O'Brien v....