117 Ark. 223 | Ark. | 1915
The plaintiff, E. L. Ellis, owns a small farm near Black River in Randolph County, and the defendants own adjoining lands. Plaintiff sues to recover compensation for injuries alleged to have been done to his land by reason of digging a ditch by defendants. There was a verdict in plaintiff’s favor assessing damages at $550, but on hearing the motion for new trial, the court required plaintiff to enter a remittitur of. $150 on account of the error in submitting the question of damages done to crop for the year 1912. The remittitnr was entered by plaintiff and judgment rendered accordingly, from which defendants have prosecuted an appeal.
It is claimed by plaintiff that the ditch cut by defendants gathered up waters from a certain area and diverted them from their natural course and caused them to flow through another water course, which overtaxed the capacity of the latter and overflowed on plaintiff’s land. There is no conflict in the testimony about the digging of the ditch, and the course and dimensions thereof, but there is a conflict in the evidence as to its effect upon the flow of water. The east end of the ditch was cut through a ridge, and the evidence adduced by plaintiff tends to show that this amounted to a diversion of the water from its natural course and emptied it into another course which was overflowed and caused the injury to his land. There is a cypress brake or slough running through plaintiff’s land, which some of the witnesses speak of as a lake, and that is the natural drainway into which the ditch emptied its waters, which, according to plaintiff’s evidence, were diverted from their natural flow.
Upon the whole, we find no error in the record, and the judgment is affirmed.