162 Pa. 341 | Pa. | 1894
Opinion by
This actio2i was to recover damages caused by the obstruction of a surface drain by reason of which rain water backed upon and overflowed the plaintiff’s premises. W. H. Wanamaker owned a tract of some five acres of ground in what is now the borough of Chambersburg. The rain water which
When these sales were made the ditch was a well-defined ■surface water course two or three feet deep and as many wide, which conducted the rain water, which otherwise would have run over the surface, to the pond mentioned. By a recent grading of the street the flow of water in the ditch has been somewhat increased, and the defendant, to avoid injury therefrom, placed obstructions in the ditch at the point where it enters his land, causing the overflow which injured the property of the plaintiff. The case has been argued here upon the right of the owner of a lower lot of land to shut off the surface water flowing from a higher one. It was submitted to the jury upon the trial as involving only the question of servitude imposed upon the defendant’s land by the former owner of both properties.
We are of opinion that this submission included the only question in the case, and that the instruction to the jury on the subject was accurate and full. The grantor of both plaintiff and defendant while he was the owner of the whole property changed the natural channel to adapt the parts to the uses to which he intended to put them. This created an easement in favor of the land which he conveyed to the plaintiff, and imposed a servitude upon that which he afterwards conveyed to the defendant. Both parties bought with notice of this, and both are bound by it. The charge of the learned judge carefully guarded the defendant from a recovery for injuries caused by an increased flow of water resulting from a
The judgment is affirmed.