127 Ind. 66 | Ind. | 1890
The nature of the action, as disclosed by the pleadings, is not very well defined. It may be regarded as a suit to recover damages caused by interrupting the flow of an artificial stream through, or diverting it from, a tile drain through which water was supplied to the plaintiff’s animals on her farm.
The merits of the case may be determined upon the following facts returned to the court in a special verdict. In 1884 the plaintiff, Mrs. Spencer, and the appellant, William Ferguson, were adjoining land-owners in Warren county, their farms being separated by a public highway running east and west on the division line. Their farms occupied such a relation that surface and spring water collected on and issuing from the defendant’s land was discharged over and through a depression, with more or less defined banks, through a similar depression over and upon the plaintiff’s land. In the year above mentioned the parties mutually agi’eed to construct a covered tile drain, of specified dimensions, to be laid at a given depth, each to construct the dis
The question is whether or not, after money had been expended in constructing the drain in reliance upon the agreement, either of the parties, without the consent of the other, could terminate the arrangement without becoming liable for any damage which might result ?
The effect of the agreement, when acted upon by the parties, was to'create mutual or cross-licenses in favor of each in the land of the other. Each was given a license from the other to make use of the other’s land for the purpose of conducting water over it for a purpose supposed beneficial to his own land.
A license is defined to be an authority given to do some act, or a series of acts, on the land of another without possessing an estate therein. Cook v. Stearns, 11 Mass. 533 (13 Am. & Eng. Encyc. of Law, 539).
By means of the arrangement entered into the plaintiff obtained a license to connect the covered tile drain which she constructed with a similar drain constructed by the de
Where a license is coupled with an interest, or the licensee has done acts in pursuance of the license which create an equity in his favor, it can not be revoked. East Jersey Iron Co. v. Wright, 32 N. J. Eq. 248.
The present case is closely analogous to Clark v. Glidden, supra, where it was held that an executed license to lay pipes to conduct water from one farm to another, for the benefit of the owner of the latter, was irrevocable, and the licensor was enjoined, upon terms, from interfering with the water-pipes laid in pursuance of the license. The present case is not distinguishable in principle. It may be conceded that the adjudications upon the subject of the right to revoke parol licenses are not uniform, and that they can not be successfully classified, or arranged, into harmonious groups ; but it is the settled law of this State, as it is of many others, that where a license, involving the expenditure of money, has been so far executed that its withdrawal would operate as a fraud upon the person who expended money in reliance upon
It may be conceded that a different rule prevails in the State of New York, as well as in some other States. Cronkhite v. Cronkhite, 94 N. Y. 323; Johnson v. Skillman, 29 Minn. 95 (43 Am. Rep. 192).
Some other questions of minor importance, which do not affect the merits of the case, are suggested. It is sufficient to say we have examined these questions, and find no error which would justify a reversal of the judgment.
Judgment affirmed, with costs.