Stults v. Huntington Water-Works Co.
Stults v. Huntington Water-Works Co.
Opinion of the Court
The appellant sued the appellees, the Huntington Water-Works Company and the city of Huntington. In the original complaint, filed August 14, 1895, the appellant sought the recovery of damages for the alleged diversion of water of the Wabash river from his mill, offering and consenting that the decree herein might confirm the title of the water-works company to the right to divert the Water from the river appropriated by it upon the payment of the value thereof, and demanded judgment for $3,000, which was alleged to to be the value of the title and right in fee to divert the water from the river.
A supplemental complaint was filed September 21, 1901, alleging the removal of the obstruction and the intake pipes alleged in the original complaint to have been placed in the river, and that the appellees, within a year after the filing of the original complaint, had surrendered to the appellant the physical possession, occupancy, and use of the Water of the stream, and had not since that time diverted or attempted to divert the water from the channel, but alleging that they still insisted that they had the right to enter upon the channel, construct such works as they might deem necessary, and locate intake pipes, and that such claim is
The facts were found substantially as follows: In the year 1876, David P. Clark was the owner in fee simple and in possession of the mill, mill site, and the dam appurtenant thereto, described in the complaint, and continued in such ownership, use, and occupancy until April, 1891, when he died intestate, and the property descended to his heirs at law, who, August 6, 1892, sold, and by warranty deed conveyed, all his property to the appellant, and placed him in possession thereof, and he owned, held, and occupied the property under such conveyance until 1897, when he conveyed one-half thereof to one Ered Dorsch hy deed of general warranty, and the appellant and his grantee had continued to hold the same as tenants in common up to the date of the finding. The appellant and his grantors for more than thirty years had owned and used the water-power created by the dam mentioned in the complaint continuously, except as complained of in this action, and the same was necessary to provide power for running the mill. In 1890, the Huntington Water-Works Company, a corporation, was organized, and acquired, by condemnation, land about one-half mile east of the mill on the north bank of the river, fronting on the river about two thousand feet, and within the back flow of the appellant’s mill-dam, and erected a water plant, composed of machinery and wells, for the purpose of furnishing water for the use of the in
After the water-works company had acquired the land above mentioned, and before it had expended any money, the company, by its president, duly authorized to do so, had a conference with Clark, then the owner of the mill and mill site, from whose heirs the appellant derived his title, and informed Clark that it would be necessary to draw
August 14, 1893, the appellant filed in the court below his complaint against the city of Huntington, appellee, and Jacob Speaker, Samuel Buchanan, Adam Penfield, William Ewing, and Thomas C. Ewing, alleging that he was the owner of the property described in his complaint herein, and describing the dam and the water power created thereby, and alleging that he was in the use and enjoyment thereof for the purpose of supplying power to his mill, and that the entire flow therein was necessary to supply sufficient power to his mill, and that the defendants for fifteen months prior thereto had wrongfully and continuously, over his objections and protests, diverted a
The individual defendants separately answered this complaint by a. general denial. The city answered that the individual defendants were the trustees and employes of the Huntington Water-Works Company, a corporation separate and distinct from the city, and that the city in no way assumed the control of that company or of its officers. The defendants Penfield, Ewing, and Elvin in a joint answer alleged that they were the trustees of the Huntington WaterWorks Company, and that they were not connected with a municipal corporation, except as provided by the statutes, and as said water-works company was organized for the purpose of furnishing to the people of the city of Huntington water for ordinary uses of inhabitants thereof; and, further, that its predecessors, also known as the Huntington Water-Works Company, appropriated a tract of land along the north bank of the Wabash river above the plaintiff’s mill and dam, and that the power house-and machinery of said company were located on said tract, and that prior to such location the defendants called upon Daniel P. Clark, who then owned the mill and mill site, and the water privileges
It was further found herein that there was erected in the Wabash river an embankment, or dam, for the purpose of raising the water to a volume such that pipes could draw it for 'the purpose of conveying it to the inhabitants of the city; that this dam, or embankment, was washed out and was replaced substantially in 1895 as it had been in 1893; and the dam made in 1893, and replaced in 1895 by the water-works company, was washed out, and there now is no dam in the river where those of 1893 and 1895 were located, “nor has there been since November, 1895.” The dam of 1895 was erected without the consent of the appellant. About June 14, 1895, “said defendant,” by its agents and officers, constructed a dam across the channel of tire river
It was further found that the appellees diverted water and sold it for a consideration for various purposes, namely, to furnish motive power for running machinery in printing establishments, for supplying engines and boilers of a railroad company named, for running fans and beer pumps in saloons and shops in the city, and for the ordinary domestic uses of the city, and the water was returned to the stream below' the appellant’s mill; that the appellees did not use any water during the time covered by the pleadings herein, except for domestic and the ordinary and usual uses in a city of ordinary size and population; and that during the period of the diversion, of water, from June 14, 1895, to August 14, 1895, the rental value of appellant’s mill was $35 per month, while if the water had been permitted to flow to the mill the rental value thereof would have been $70 per month.
The court stated as its conclusions of law that the damage complained of in this action was finally determined and adjudicated in the prior suit mentioned above; that “the defendant,” as a riparian owner, had a right to use the water taken by it from the river for the purposes set out in the finding; that the appellant is not entitled to have a
There is some obscurity in the special finding, but it appears that in the former action mentioned in the finding, the adjudication did not involve merely the recovery of damages for injury sustained by the diversion of water prior to the commencement of the action, and that the obstruction and pipes in the river were not treated merely as temporary and removable, but the plaintiff, proceeding upon the theory that the diversion, with the means provided therefor, constituted a permanent injury to his alleged right as owner of the water-power, put in litigation the question as to the amount of his damages past and future arising out of an unchangeable condition. The recovery in that case necessarily involved the right of the defendants to maintain permanently the condition for the existence of which full damages were sought and adjudged.
In the original complaint in the case at bar substantially the same relief was sought. The dam or obstruction erected in 1895 was substantially the same as that involved in the former suit, the right to maintain which was secured by that adjudication. The parties, too, were the same, or, so far as they were not identical, those in the case at bar were successors to the rights of parties to the former suit, and against them the plaintiff could not assert a claim for damages which had been adjudicated in such prior suit, and satisfied by payment.
We need not discuss the question as to the proper effect of the consent of the owner of the mill, and his standing by while the expensive structures were being made for the diversion of the water. That question was one belonging to the former suit, and however decided, was involved in the judgment therein.
In the supplemental complaint the appellant alleged the removal of the obstruction and pipes which caused the in
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.