53 S.E. 745 | N.C. | 1906
The complaint alleges that the roof of defendant's building, a large three-story livery stable, not being provided with gutters, the water collected thereon is thrown against the wall of plaintiff's building adjacent thereto, which keeps the plaintiff's wall moist and wet all the time, and this water has leaked through the plaintiff's wall and injured her building, and the water has collected at the foot of her wall, and this has put her to expense in drainage of her building, under orders of the health officer, to which she would not otherwise have been subjected. The demurrer that the complaint did not state a cause of action should have been overruled. (109)
The water falling on the defendant's lot, in its natural condition, could run off as nature provided for it, and the lower proprietor could not complain. But when the defendant erected a building, the roof prevented part of the rainfall from being soaked up by the ground, and when the defendant collected it on his roof and discharged it against the plaintiff's wall, or increased the quantity at the foot of the plaintiff's wall, he diverted the water from its usual course and became responsible for any damage caused thereby. Porter v. Durham,
The demurrer also admits the further allegation of the complaint, "that the plaintiff has complained to the defendant at various times *110 of this condition and has requested him to remedy it; that it could be remedied by the defendant at little cost by putting upon his building proper gutters and drains from the gutters under the sidewalk of Main Street, as the plaintiff has done, but the defendant has persistently refused to do."
In Shipley v. 50 Associates,
30 A. E. (2 Ed.), 342, says: "The owner of a building must prevent the water from the roof thereof from falling upon adjoining land belonging to another, and if he fails to do so he is liable therefor." To same purport,Copper v. Dolvin,
Reversed.
Cited: S. c.,
(111)