Lafferty v. Girardville Borough

Citations

• 1 Monag. 513
• 17 A. 12
• 1889 Pa. LEXIS 1315

Syllabus

<p>In an action on the case against a borough, to recover damages for injuries caused by surface water flowing upon a lot abutting on a street, the evidence was to the effect that, in 1873, the plaintiff erected a house on the lot, which was low and swampy and frequently overflowed by water. In front of the house was a corduroy road. About sixty feet down the road, from plaintiff’s house, was a culvert under the road. In 1885, the borough graded the road and rebuilt the culvert in a proper manner. In 1882, owners of lots on the opposite side of the street began to build, and, to protect their lots from an overflow, they constructed a stone wall which partially obstructed the culvert. The plaintiff had no direct connection with the culvert, but her drainage was thrown by, means of a ditch, upon her next lower neighbor’s ground, and it flowed over this toward the culvert. The court below charged that the borough was not bound to drain the plaintiff’s land, and that the plaintiff could not recover. JHeld, not to be error.</p> <p>It seems that a borough is not liable in a civil action for a failure to provide a system of drainage which will prevent the flow of surface 'water upon property lying below the level of a street.</p>