Southern Pac. Co. v. Smith

Plaintiff sued the Southern Pacific Company for damages to their cultivated lands situated along the easterly side of defendant’s railway track in the county of Greenlee, state of Arizona. Their complaint alleges that in the months of July and August, 1930, 1931, and 1932, the railroad embankment across one canyon water course and the embankment and bridge across another of two adjoining canyons obstructed the flow of flood waters of the canyon watersheds and caused them to accumulate on the westerly side of the track and from there cross the track and invade plaintiffs’ lands, injuring different parcels then under cultivation. The complaint alleges that the inadequacy of the stream opening in the bridge of the canyon called the North Canyon had caused a silting up *452 of the channel and the deposit of rocks and débris in the channel lying to the westerly which defendant had failed to remove.

The plaintiffs also complain that the defendant railway company had removed débris and rock, deposited on the railroad in prior flood conditions, to the west of the track in such a way that the water of the floods causing the damage complained of were accumulated and thrown across the…