Parker v. Larsen

Citations

• 86 Cal. 236
• 24 P. 989
• 1890 Cal. LEXIS 1012

Syllabus

<p>Artificial Watercourse — Percolation — Injury to Adjoining Lands — Damages —■ Injunction. — A land-owner who permits the water taken from artesian wells on his lands, and carried through a ditch for the purpose of irrigating his fields, to percolate through the ditch, and to saturate his neighbor’s land, to his injury, when it might have been drained from the ditch, so as probably to prevent such injury, is liable for the damages thereby occasioned, and may be restrained by injunction from continuing the injury.</p> <p>Id. — Distinction between Natural and Artificial Watercourse — Foreign Substance — Maxim. — The rule applicable to the percolation of water from a natural watercourse does not apply to water brought upon the land by artificial means; but in such case the rule applies, that, where one brings a foreign substance on his land, he must take care of it, and not permit it to injure his neighbor, and is subject to the maxim, Sic utcre tuo ut alicnum non Icedas.</p>