Bradley v. Warner
Bradley v. Warner
Opinion of the Court
This is a bill for an injunction to restrain the respondents from polluting the complainant’s ice-pond, and for an account to be taken of the damages suffered by the complainant from the pollution of the pond in the past.
On October 23, 1872, Lysander Flagg, the owner of the land in East Providence platted as the Medbery and Lawton Plat, and as the Lawton Farm Plat in Riverside, by his deed of that date conveyed to George Smith, as trustee for the grantor and others, the lots numbered 333, 334, 335, 336, on the Lewis Farm Plat, and lots numbered 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 131, 133, and 134 on the Medbery and Lawton Plat, together with the ice-house then building on lots 81 and 82; “ also the exclusive privilege of cutting and taking ice from the artificial *38 pond of water made by building a dam by said grantee on or between lots numbered 245, 247, 249, 251, and 254, and lots, numbered 246, 248, 250, 252, and 255, as said lots are laid out and described on the aforesaid Plat of Villa Lots on the Medbery and Lawton Farms near Cedar Grove, as long as said pond shall exist, reserving, however, to the present owner or future owners of the aforesaid dam, and to their heirs and assigns forever, the right of flowage upon or over any or all of the afore-granted lots, and the further right to draw the water from said pond whenever it may be necessary.” All the subsequent conveyances through which the complainant derives title to his land, including the deed to him dated July 26, 1890, expressly include the ice privilege granted in the deed from Flagg to Smith, trustee, as above set forth.
About sixteen or seventeen years before the filing of the bill, the dam referred to in the deed from Flagg to Smith, trustee, having been carried away, the Riverside Ice Company, a predecessor in title of the complainant, proceeded up the brook about five hundred feet to a point on Fenner avenue, a platted street which has never been graded or accepted as a public highway, where an ancient bridge, part of an old driftway, crossed the brook, and there constructed a new dam, without the leave or license of the then owners of the lots on the Medberry and Lawton Plat abutting on Fenner avenue in that part of it where the dam was built, and against the objection and protest of George M. Johnson, the owner of the lots on which was subsequently erected a wing wall to sustain the dam. The rollway of the new dam is two inches lower than the rollway of the old dam, so that the pond raised by the new'dam does not flow back up the stream so far as the pond raised by the old dam.
The respondents each derive title to the lots owned by them respectively through mesne conveyances from Flagg, the deeds of these lots having been executed subsequently to the recording of the deed from him to Smith, trustee of the premises which the complainant' owns. The lots of the respondents are above the sites of both the old and the new dam, on opposite sides of the pond raised by the new dam. *39 The sources of pollution complained of are a privy and sink-drain-pipe on the Warner property, and a drain-pipe on the Peck property placed there before the occupation of the present tenant of the latter property began.
We are inclined to the view taken by the complainant. The conveyance of the lots with the ice-house being in fee, with authority to the grantee to enter on the land of the grantor and erect a dam for the purpose of creating the pond on which to cut the ice, gives rise to a presumption that the *40 easement to have the dam continued and the lots flowed was to be co-extensive with the estate in the lots, and hence that it was not to be restricted merely to the life of the-dam, but that the grantee and his successors in title should have the right to maintain the dam, and for that purpose to enter upon the land of the grantor to repair or rebuild it when necessary. Huntington v. Asher, 96 N. Y. 604, was a case similar in this respect to the present. That was a case, not of a strict easement, but of a profit a prendre, the pond on which the ice privilege was to be exercised not belonging to the owner of the privilege. It was held that, though the owners of the pond were not bound to maintain the dam, they were not authorized to destroy it or prevent its repair, and that the grant of the privilege carried with it, and gave to the owner of the estate to which the privilege was appurtenant, the right to repair and rebuild the dam.
The respondents insist that an injunction ought not to be granted because, as they allege, the water is unfit for ice-making purposes. They allege that the brook which flows into the pond receives the drainage of a territory two and one-half to three miles in length, passing through a swamp and through meadows and pastures where animals pollute it, and that filth from barns, hen-yards, pig-pens, and the wash of streets flows into it; that there is a pond higher up on the, stream which is turned into this pond, and that it receives the silt and sediment accumulated in the higher pond which the pipes in the new dam are inadequate to properly drain, so that there is a constantly increasing sediment which must pollute the water. If it be conceded that these contentions are correct, we do not think that they furnish a defence. This question was considered by the court in Richmond Mfg. Co. v. Atlantic De Laine Co., 10 R. I. 106, and it was there held that, though the refuse from certain stables, drains, *42 privies, and tanneries had been emptied into the river between the mills of the plaintiff and the respondent, it was no excuse for the pollution of the stream by the respondent. And see also Grould on Waters, 2 ed. § 222, as follows : “The fact, however, that the stream is fouled by others, even by a large number of persons, is not a defence to a suit to restrain the fouling by one ; and if, at the time when the defendant began to pollute, the stream was already so much fouled by others as to be unfit for plaintiff’s use, the action would still be maintainable.”
Nor do we see that the fact claimed by the respondents, to be established by the evidence, that the water has been polluted by the neglect of a former tenant of the complainant to promptly remove manure from the premises adjacent to the ice-house, whereby it was suffered to accumulate and the rain-water falling upon it to run into the pond, constitutes a defence. The evidence does not show that the accumulation of manure was with the complainant’s knowledge or permission, and even if it were it would not avail the respondents. In Silver Spring Bleaching and Dyeing Co. v. Wanskuck Co., 13 R. I. 611, it was held that the pollution of the stream by the complainant was entirely a matter between him and the owners below, unless the pollution made the river injurious to public health, or otherwise became an injury to public rights, in which event it was for the proper officers of the government to intervene.
An examination of the testimony leads us to the conclusion that the evidence of pollution of the water of the pond by both respondents is sufficient to warrant the granting of an injunction.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Charles Bradley vs. Sarah M. Warner Et Al.
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published