Fowler

Plaintiff and appellant W&W El Camino Real, LLC (W&W), sued its upslope neighbor, defendant and respondent Victoria Fowler, trustee of the Fowler Revocable Living Trust (Fowler), for property damages after a January 2010 severe rainstorm flooded the property currently owned by W&W with water, mud and debris over the course of several hours, which W&W contends originated from Fowler’s property. Fowler owns several acres of real property located in Rancho Santa Fe, California. For many years Fowler has operated a lemon grove on about four of those acres consisting of about 450 trees.

The jury in the special verdict form found in favor of W&W and awarded it about $350,000 in damages. However, the jury also found Civil Code section 3482.5, also known as the “Right to Farm Act,” applied. Under that statute, a commercial agricultural activity conducted for more than three years consistent with accepted standards in the locality is deemed not to be a nuisance due to any changed condition in the locality if the activity did not constitute a nuisance when it began. (See Souza v. Lauppe (1997) 59 Cal.App.4th 865, 868 [ 69 Cal.Rptr.2d 494 ] (Souza).) As a result of the jury’s…