52 S.C. 279 | S.C. | 1898
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
This action was commenced in the Court of Common Pleas for Greenville County, in this State, on the 8th day of October, 1896, for damages. It was tried before Judge Ernest Gary and a jury at the March, 1897, term of said Court. The verdict was for the plaintiff in the sum of $300. After entry of judgment on the verdict, the defendant appealed to this Court. The complaint, the charge of the Judge, and the grounds of appeal will be reported. ' Before passing to the consideration of the questions
Testimony was then offered by the plaintiff tending'to prove that he owned a piece of bottom land on the Enoree River, on the Greenville County side; that twenty acres of said bottom land was planted in corn and pumpkins; that said lands were very rich and productive, yielding from fifty to sixty bushels of corn per acre, and that the corn was worth fifty cents per bushel, and that the fodder therefrom was valuable, as well as the pumpkins, in money; that the
After the plaintiff had announced that he closed his testimony, the defendant made a motion for a nonsuit upon these grounds: 1. That the cause of damage was the flood alleged by the complaint to have been an unusual one and
The defendant then offered its testimony, which tended to show that an unusually heavy rainy season had obtained in that section where its property was located, but that, in addition thereto, there fell during the day of Friday an immense quantity of water, which caused the Fnoree River to rise rapidly and to a considerable height in an hour; that this heavy rainfall caused said Bnoree River to rise to a great height, even after the defendant’s agents had opened two of the floodgates in its stone dam across the river at its mill
The fourth ground of appeal is disposed of by th.e matters embraced in our consideration of the third ground of appeal, and is, therefore, dismissed.
The eighth ground of appeal was abandoned at the hearing before us.
It follows, therefore, that the Circuit Judge did not err as complained of.
The judgment of this Court is, that the judgment of the Circuit Court be affirmed, and the cause be remanded to the Circuit Court to enforce the order of Judge Ernest Gary, which was consented to. by all the counsel engaged in the eleven causes hereinbefore enumerated.