Case ID: cal_23/html/0225-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Crocker, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

EVERETT et al. v. THE HYDRAULIC FLUME TUNNEL COMPANY.
    If the owners of a ditch or flume for the conveyance of water erect a dam above mining claims, and the claims are afterwards damaged by reason of the breaking of the dam, its owners are not liable for the damages, if it was constructed with that reasonable care which prudent men would use, and no negligence is shown in its care and management.
    Appeal from the District Court, Fifteenth Judicial District, Butte County.
    The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court.
    
      McRae & Beatty, for Appellants.
    
      C. F. Lott, for Respondents.
   Crocker, J.

delivered the opinion of the Court—Norton, J. concurring.

This is an action to recover damages caused by the breaking of a dam owned by the defendants. The plaintiffs are the owners of mining claims and sluice-boxes below the defendants’ dam, which broke at a high stage of water, and, as is alleged, injured the plaintiffs’ property below. The case was tried by the Court, who found for the defendants, and the plaintiffs appeal. The Court found that the dam was well built, and constructed in a good and workmanlike manner, and of sufficient strength and capacity to contain the amount of water within it; ” that no negligence on the part of the defendants was shown, and that they used that reasonable care and diligence which prudent men would have used, in the erection and care of the dam. Under these findings, the Court properly rendered judgment for the defendants, as the case comes clearly within the rule laid down in Hoffman v. The Tuolumne Water Company (10 Cal. 413), and Wolf v. The St. Louis Independent Water Company (Id. 541). But the appellant insists that the findings upon these points are not sustained by the evidence. We have carefully examined the record, and see no error in these findings. They are fairly sustained by the evidence.

The judgment is therefore affirmed.