Williams v. Fresno Canal & Irrigation Co.

—This action was brought to recover damages for wrongfully, digging, plowing, and scraping away the soil of plaintiffs’ land, and for an injunction against continuing the said alleged trespasses. The jury returned a verdict for plaintiffs in the sum of $750, for which judgment was entered. Defendant appeals from an order denying a motion for a new trial.

1. The main point urged by appellant is, that the trial court erred in denying a motion for a nonsuit, made upon the ground “ that no evidence has been adduced connecting the Fresno Canal and Irrigation Company with the alleged trespass set out in the complaint.”

The appellant, a corporation, owned a canal running along the northern side of respondents’ land; and for the purpose of raising and otherwise improving the canal, the top soil of respondents’ land was plowed up to an average depth of about one foot, and over a space about sixty feet wide and a quarter of a mile long, and scraped off and piled up on the bank of said canal. Thé work by which this was .accomplished was actually done by one Applegarth, and appellant contends that it was not responsible for the result of such work. But it sufficiently appears from the…