Ambrosini v. Alisal Sanitary District

KAUFMAN, P. J.

Plaintiffs filed this action for damages to a celery crop grown on land owned by the plaintiff Ferrasci under a contract with the plaintiff Ambrosini, on the counts of nuisance and inverse condemnation, alleging that the damage was due to the overflow of a sewer outfall line owned by the defendant, a public corporation, organized pursuant to Health and Safety Code, sections 6400 et seo. The defendant appeals from the judgment on a jury verdict rendered in favor of the plaintiffs on both counts, and assigns as error the order of the trial court overruling defendant’s demurrer, the orders denying defendant’s motion for a nonsuit, motion for a directed verdict, and motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, as well as certain alleged errors in the instructions.

The facts, viewed most favorably to the plaintiffs, are as follows; Plaintiffs were the owners of a field of celery bordering on the Salinas-Monterey Highway and adjacent to a portion of the sewage outfall line installed, maintained and operated by the defendant district. The outfall line was constructed in 1941 along with the defendant’s sewage disposal plant. The plant was designed for a daily flow of 1.1 million gallons. The normal “dry-flow” of sewage through the plant

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and into the outfall line was approximately 750,000 to 1,000,000 gallons per day with the flow varying in a day from 100,000 gallons to 1.5 million gallons. The sewage enters the outfall line after treatment at the plant, is carried through a concrete pipe line 18 inches in diameter, and discharged into the Salinas River at a point four miles from the plant. As originally constructed, the outfall line contained four pressure manholes which made it impossible for any sewage to escape from the outfall line through a manhole. In the fall of 1955, due to the growth of the population in the district and the increased flow of sewage in the outfall line which reduced the capacity of the pipe, the engineers of the defendant district recommended that the line be cleaned out by the installation of additional manholes. Fourteen additional non-pressure manholes were completed on December 2, 1955, and left unsealed, due to the cleaning operations. Manhole Number 12 which is located directly opposite plaintiff’s celery field was one of the 14 nonpressure manholes constructed in 1955. There is also some evidence that the defendant district was in a strained financial condition at the time of the 1955 modifications.