Beech v. Kuder

Citations

• 15 Pa. Super. 89
• 1900 Pa. Super. LEXIS 307

Syllabus

<p>Waters and water rights — Hiparían rights.</p> <p>Ripariau proprietors are entitled, in the absence of grant, license or prescription, to have the stream which' washes their lands flow as is wont by nature without material diminution or alteration.</p> <p>Equitable jurisdiction — Obstruction of stream.</p> <p>Where an obstruction is erected by a lower riparian owner without pretense or right thus to obstruct the stream, the upper riparian owner is not bound to await the slow process of successive actions of trespass but may in the first instance appeal to equity for relief.</p> <p>Estoppel — Equity—Balance of injury.</p> <p>A stream having been obstructed estoppel cannot be set up against the upper riparian owner either (1) because he took care of the water, after it had been turned back, upon his land, or (2) because he at one time said “ he did not intend to go to the expense of a lawsuit over the matter” there being no evidence that this remark had been communicated to the defendants or that they had changed their situation in reliance upon it.</p> <p>There are lacking under such circumstances, not only the essential elements of an estoppel but also the facts essential to the proper application of the equitable principles of the “ balance of injury.”</p>