Los Angeles Cemetery Ass'n v. City of Los Angeles

The plaintiff and appellant here is a corporation and the owner of some thirty-five acres of land situate within the city of Los Angeles, and devoted to the purposes of a cemetery.

The action is brought against the city of Los Angeles, a municipal corporation, to recover damages alleged to have been suffered by the construction of an embankment across an alleged watercourse, near to and below the cemetery, in which a culvert was constructed of such small size, and at such an elevation above the natural surface, that it was insufficient and unable to *463 carry off the water which in time of storms flows down said watercourse, whereby the water was backed up, upon and over a portion of said cemetery grounds depositing mud, debris, and filth thereon, and rendering such portion of said grounds unfit for cemetery purposes, and causing a deposit of mud, etc., washed from adjoining land in an artificial lake owned by plaintiff in said cemetery grounds.

The answer denied the material allegations of the complaint. Defendant had a general verdict in its favor. There was also submitted to the jury certain special issues, at the request of the respective parties, upon which they found. The…