Thomas v. Bolsa Land Co.

GRAY, P. J.

This action is brought to recover damages suffered by reason of a dam constructed by defendants, which had the effect to hack up and cause certain waters to sub-irrigate and injure and destroy the celery crop of plaintiffs. On a trial without a jury the plaintiffs had judgment for

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$982 and costs. The defendants appeal from the judgment, and from an order denying them a new trial.

The plaintiff Thomas owns a certain forty acres of land in Orange County, upon which the plaintiffs, under an agreement between them for cropping the land on shares, had growing some eleven acres of celery. The story of injuries complained of is aptly told in the findings of the court, the important parts of which are as follows:—

“That the said land is situated about two miles from and above the dam described in said complaint and therein alleged to have been built by the Bolsa Land Company. That said land of the plaintiff Thomas was, as early as the year 1892, to some extent drained by the construction of ditches along and through it, and prior to the construction of said dam had been drained to such an extent as to render it tillable and susceptible of raising, and had raised, good crops of celery and other farm products. That prior to the building of said dam the ditches used in the drainage of the lands of the plaintiffs and other lands contiguous thereto emptied into a natural stream known as Freeman’s River, and from thence into Bolsa Chica Bay, and from said bay through a natural channel and outlet into the Pacific Ocean.

“That prior to the 1st day of October, 1899, the plaintiff D. H. Thomas had expended money in draining said land, and in preparing for, and in reducing the same to cultivation, and in cultivating said land, and in digging and keeping open ditches for the purpose of draining said land into said Bolsa Chica Bay, and had, prior to the building of said dam, drained said land and kept the water off and from under the same by running said water into Bolsa Chica Bay, from which bay it flowed out into the Pacific Ocean by a natural channel, carrying away the surplus water from said lands, by means of said ditches, river and bay and natural channel into the Pacific Ocean.

"That during the year 1899 the plaintiffs planted the land described in the complaint as belonging to the plaintiff Thomas with celery and other crops; that eleven acres of said land were planted -with celery, and that plaintiffs were the owners of said crop of celery. That before said celery was planted the land was properly prepared and put in a fit state of cultivation for the planting of celery, and said land was