Vail v. Mix

Citations

• 74 Ill. 127

Syllabus

<p>1. Prescription—easement or right to overflow land. A right to overflow land, like easements in general, may be acquired by an uninterrupted and adverse enjoyment for twenty years, or for the period of time fixed by the statute of limitations for the right of entry upon lands.</p> <p>2. Injunction —party precluded from, after long acquiescence. Where the owners of land, which is overflowed by a dam, acquiesce in the erection of the dam, and permit the party erecting the same to make large expenditures in'the same and in building and maintaining a mill, and suffer the dam to be kept up for twenty-four years, their acquiescence for so great a time will preclude them from enjoining the rebuilding and repair of a part of the dam carried away.</p> <p>3. Statute construed — condemnation for mill. The provision in the statute relating to mills and millers, which prohibits the erection of a dam, etc., which will injure the health of the neighborhood by the overflow of lands, has application only to proceedings had under that statute, and does not apply on bill for injunction to prevent the repair of a dam, long before erected.</p> <p>4. Injunction — nuisance affecting public health. For a threatened inj ury to the public health, as by the erection of a dam and the consequent overflow of lands, a court of equity will not interfere at the suit of a few private individuals, unless it be shown in the bill that their health is or will be directly affected by the nuisance.</p>