Miller v. Highland Ditch Co.

Plaintiff was the owner of a tract of land situated about one mile southerly from the San Bernardino range of mountains. . Part of the tract was-in a high state of cultivation. Coming out of said mountains, and trending towards plaintiff's land, but not reaching it, is a canon called Baldridge Cañón. The natural waters of said cañón would not flow upon plaintiff’s land, but, as found by the court, “would spread out on the lower lands without cutting any particular, channel, the tendency of the flow being to spread out over the said lower lands north of plaintiff’s premises and become absorbed in the soil. But the defend *431 ants, by means of three different ditches, turned foreign water into said cañón, and the commingling water from said ditches passed through said cañón, and by cutting new channels, etc., flowed out and over plaintiff's land, covering part of it with sand and débris, and thus doing him damage. All of the ditches, however, were not Downed jointly by all of the defendants. Each ditch was JprjVned and operated by part only of the defendants, who no interest in the other ditches, and there was no concert of action — that is, no common design — between the owners of…