Engle v. Luzerne County Gas Co.

Citations

• 36 Pa. Super. 311
• 1908 Pa. Super. LEXIS 161

Syllabus

<p>, Waters — Obstruction of stream — Overflow of banks — Gas pipe — Gas company — Question •for jury — Negligence.</p> <p>In an action by an owner of property in a house against a gas company to recover damages for injuries to the property by the backing of water on the property from a stream, the case is for the jury, and a verdict and judgment for plaintiff will be sustained, where the evidence tends to show that the municipality in which the property was situated had provided a sufficient vent under a city bridge, but that the defendant had suspended a gas pipe of from four to six inches in diameter between the bed of the stream and the bottom of the bridge, and that this pipe at a time of high water caught the debris, and backed the water on plaintiff’s premises causing the injuries for which suit was brought.</p> <p>In such a case if the pipe contributed in any substantial way to the damage, it was sufficient to make the defendant liable; and this is so even if the flood was an extraordinary one.</p>