Bacon v. Kearney Vineyard Syndicate

BUCKLES, J.

This is an action for damages resulting from flooding the plaintiff's vineyard, alleged to have been caused from the negligence and carelessness of defendant and its agents in keeping and operating certain water-ditches, dams, and head-gates therein and the water running therein on to lands of defendant for irrigating, and which lands are near those of plaintiff. The answer specifically denies all the allegations of the complaint. The ease was tried before the court without a jury and the judgment was for the plaintiff for the sum of $378 damages, with interest thereon at seven per-cent per annum from date until paid, and for $62.25 costs. A motion was made for a new trial and denied. The appeal is taken from the judgment and from the order denying the motion for a new trial.

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The evidence is before us in the statement settled on motion for new trial, from which evidence it appears that these are undisputed facts, viz.: 1. That defendant owned an artificial ditch used for irrigating his field of alfalfa, in which ditch are several head-gates and a dam to increase or lessen the flow of the water and to prevent the escape of the water on to other lands; 2. That plaintiff owns a vineyard of twenty acres near the said ditch; 3. That the grapes in said vineyard were near ripening; 4. That grapes in a condition of ripening would be injured by allowing the water to run over the surface of the ground around the vines; 5. That the water did escape from defendant’s said ditch and did flood a part of the plaintiff’s vineyard; and 6. That plaintiff’s grapes were damaged by reason of the vineyard being flooded by the water escaping from defendant’s ditch.

There is no claim of contributory negligence, and there is no evidence tending to show that plaintiff was in any way to blame for the flooding of his said vineyard. The defendant had the right to use said ditch and to run the water therein for the purposes of irrigating his field of alfalfa. The rule in such cases, as we understand it, is well settled, and is this: The owner of an artificial ditch through which flows water for domestic uses or for irrigation, as in this case, is bound to keep such ditch in repair so that the water running therein will not break through or escape therefrom and damage the land or crops of another, and that if through any fault or negligence of his in not properly managing the ditch, or keeping it in repair, the water does escape therefrom and injures the lands or crops of another, he is liable and the law will hold him responsible for whatever damage may be done.