Wood

Defendants are the owners of a large tract of land. Plaintiff’s land (twenty acres in extent) is contiguous to, and lower in elevation than, defendants’ land. It is charged that defendants in preparing their land for cultivation changed the course of surface water which in times of rain accumulated in a ravine in the hills upon their property, erected an embankment across the original wash which these surface waters followed, and constructed a new channel for them to the canal of the Riverside Water Company. The result was, that under a heavy, rainfall the waters rushed over the land and down the channel into the canal of the Riverside Water Company, filling it with mud and other debris and, breaking over the canal, continued their way across defendants’ land and on to plaintiff’s land, doing damage. It was charged that but for the interference by defendants with the natural flow of the surface waters they would never have reached plaintiff’s land. The action was brought to recover damages and to compel the defendants to abate the embankment and channel as a nuisance, and to restore the original channel to its earlier condition. A jury trial was had and the jury returned their…