7 S.E.2d 324 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1940
1. Private property may not be taken or damaged for public purposes without the payment of just and adequate compensation.
2. The owner of land through which a nonnavigable stream flows has such a right to the flow of water as he has in the soil which underlies it.
3. Where a county, grading a road under contract with the highway department, hauls dirt one hundred feet from the right of way and dumps it into a spring on land adjoining the plaintiffs' land, and stops up the spring and cuts off a stream which flowed upon and through the plaintiff's property, it is liable in damages for the difference between the value of the plaintiffs' land before and after the stoppage of the flow of water.
1. It is elemental that private property may not be taken or damaged for public purposes without the payment of just and adequate compensation therefor.
2. "The owner of land through which nonnavigable water-courses may flow is entitled to have the water in such streams come to his land in its natural and usual flow, subject only to such detention or diminution as may be caused by a reasonable use of it by other riparian proprietors." Code, § 105-1407. An owner of land to or through which a nonnavigable stream flows has a right to the flow of the water which is equal to his right to the soil which underlies the stream. Hendrix v. Roberts Marble Co.
3. The fact that the dumping of the dirt into and onto the spring was not necessary, or was ill-advised, or was negligent, is immaterial to the liability, since by the dumping private property was taken and damaged. Gwinnett County v. Allen,
Judgment reversed. Stephens, P. J., and Sutton, J.,concur.