Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad v. Davis

Citations

• 73 Miss. 678

Syllabus

<p>1. Railboads. Obstruction to flow of water. Injury to adjacent lands. Dmbamltment.</p> <p>A railway company, the line of which runs through low lands subject to overflow, has the right to construct embankments necessary to raise the roadbed above periodical floods, and cannot be held liable for damages because of the obstruction which an embankment, made by filling in a trestle, opposes to the drainage of the flood and surface waters, where large and numerous trestles still remain to afford such drainage, no streams are obstructed, and there is no proof either that the road is improperly constructed or that a trestle, at the place in question, would be as safe and economical as the embankment. Sinai v. Rail/road Co., 71 Miss., 547, distinguished; RaiiVroad Co. v. Smith, 72 Miss., 677, cited.</p> <p>2. Same. Unprecedented overflows.</p> <p>A railway company is not un der a duty to so construct its roadbed as to provide against all except unprecedented overflows, or to preserve adjacent lands from overflows that they were subject to in their natural state.</p> <p>3. Payment eob Rigiit oe Way. Damages included therein.</p> <p>Where a railway company has located and built its road, under a charter authorizing it so to do on condition only that, by contract or under condemnation proceedings, it should compensate the owners of the property taken therefor, the amount paid to a landowner by way of compensation, whether by contract or upon the award of the commissioners in such proceeding, will be held to include all such damage from overflow as may be incidental to the proper construction and maintenance of the road.</p>