Peterson v. City of Santa Rosa

Citations

• 119 Cal. 387
• 51 P. 557
• 1897 Cal. LEXIS 907

Syllabus

<p>Injunction—Relative Equities.—A court of chancery will not interpose by injunction as of course after the right of the plaintiff has been established at law; but it will consider the circumstances, the consequences of such action, and the real equity of the case; and each case must be governed by the circumstances that surround it, and by relative equities.</p> <p>Id.—Rights of Riparian Owner—Pollution of Stream by Sewage—Nuisance—Injunction against Municipal Corporation.—A riparian owner has a right of property in the waters of the stream, as appurtenant to the land, and is entitled to have it flow in its natural purity, and may enjoin as an actionable nuisance the pollution of the stream by a municipal corporation which has caused sewage to flow therein, so as substantially to impair its value for ordinary purposes, and to render it at times offensive to the senses and unfit for domestic use, and the fact that the defendant is a municipal corporation does not enhance its rights, or palliate its wrongs in this respect.</p> <p>Ib.—Supplemental Answeb—Consteuction of Sewage Plant—Deodobization of Sewage—Fitness fob Domestic Use—Bubden of Pboof—Pbesumption.—A supplemental answer by the municipal corporation, setting forth that, since the commencement of the action, it had constructed and was operating a sewage plant, which rendered the sewage water clear and inodorous, does not constitute a defense to the injunction, in the absence of a showing that the water was rendered palatable and fit for use; and prior findings having established that the water of the stream was rendered unfit for use by the sewage, the burden of showing a change in that respect rested upon the defendant, and it must be presumed, in the absence of such a showing, that the water in that respect had not undergone a change.</p>