Elliott v. County of Los Angeles

SHAW, J.

The defendant appeals from the judgment. The record on appeal consists of the judgment-roll alone.

The first count of the complaint alleged that certain storm waters, prior to the injury complained of, had always flowed in a westerly direction, in a course a mile north of plaintiff’s land, and not over, through, or across said land; that in February, 1914, the defendant wrongfully and unlawfully, and without plaintiff's consent, by certain concrete conduits and ditches constructed by it in 1913, in connection with a protection district known as the San Fernando Protection District, diverted said storm waters from their previous course over, through, and across the plaintiff’s land, whereby said land was damaged by reason of the ditches and gullies washed therein by said storm water, in the sum of two thousand dollars. It also alleges the filing of a claim with the board of supervisors and the rejection thereof.

[474]

The second count, in addition to the allegations aforesaid included in the first count, alleges that the alteration in the comise of the storm drain, made in connection with the protection district, changed the course so that the storm water •came within seventy-five feet of the plaintiff’s land, and that, in constructing said artificial watercourse, defendant negligently failed to make it sufficient and adequate to carry the waters diverted into the same and used inferior, defective, and inadequate materials, and that by reason of all these acts of the defendant the. said concrete conduit broke at a point seventy-five feet from, plaintiff’s land, in consequence whereof the waters were diverted over, across, and through plaintiff’s land to its damage as previously stated.

The answer consisted solely of a denial of the material allegations of the complaint.

The findings state that prior to the alterations made by the defendant the course of the storm waters in question was not nearer than one mile from plaintiff’s land; that in 1912, under and in pursuance of the act of March 27, 1895 (Stats. 1895, p. 248), the defendant formed a protection district, called the San Fernando Protection District; that in carrying out the objects of the said protection district defendant, by means of a dam, headworks, tunnel, and concrete conduit constructed for that purpose, diverted said storm waters over, through, and across plaintiff’s land, by reason whereof the same was damaged in the sum of three hundred dollars; and that the said dam, headworks, concrete conduit, and tunnel were erected under plans and specifications furnished by the defendant.