99 Iowa 589 | Iowa | 1896
I. Plaintiff is a corporation engaged in the manufacture of furniture. Its factory is situated upon the south side of East Front street in the defendant city, and faces north thereon. Wall street and Mississippi avenue are streets which intersect with Front street on the north side thereof; the former just west, and the latter east, of the plaintiff’s factory. These two streets run north and south, and have a decided up-grade to the north, and the surface water from twenty or thirty acres of ground is cast upon these streets, and conveyed down to Front street. At times of heavy rains the volume of water which comes down these streets is quite large. Front street, from a point about ninety feet east of plaintiff’s property, has a descending grade to the west, and towards plaintiff’s place of business, and the surface water thereon runs in that direction. Prior to the year 1892, the city had constructed ordinary culverts at the intersections of Mississippi avenue and Wall street with Front street, which carried the water which came down these north and south streets/ under Front street, and into the Mississippi river. In the summer of that year the defendant paved Front street for a long distance on either side of the plaintiff’s property, took out the culverts before referred to, and in place thereof substituted iron drain pipes or sewers. These pipes were smaller than the culverts which they replaced, and were covered at the north end with an
IV. Some other questions are discussed by counsel.' These need not be referred to, for some of them are covered by what has already been said, and others will not arise upon a retrial. For the errors pointed out, the judgment of the- district court is reversed.