Court Opinion

ID: 7369702
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-07-28 00:08:25.514325+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:20:51.853987
License: Public Domain

A riparian proprietor has a right to have a stream flow through his lands in its natural state, without diminution in quantity. Elmore v. Ingalls, 245 Ala. 481, 17 So.2d 674; Tennessee Coal, Iron R. Co. v. Hamilton, 100 Ala. 252,14 So. 167, 46 Am.St.Rep. 48; McCary v. McLendon, 195 Ala. 497,70 So. 715. A licensee may sue a third party for wrongful interference with his rights under the license. 53 C.J.S. Licenses, § 96b, page 822; Miller v. Inhabitors of Greenwich, 62 N.J.L. 771,42 A. 735;
A riparian proprietor is an owner of land bounded by a water course, or through which a stream flows. Riparian rights exist only as incident to ownership of the soil. Burden v. Stein,27 Ala. 104, 62 Am.Dec. 758; Mobile Dry Docks Co. v. City of Mobile, 146 Ala. 198, 40 So. 205, 3 L.R.A., N.S., 822, 9 Ann.Cas. 1229; 67 C.J. 683. A mere gratuitous licensee of land may not sue for an interference with riparian rights, since these are inseparably annexed to the freehold, and can be released only by grant which was not alleged by complainant. Southern R. Co. v. Lewis, 165 Ala. 555, 51 So. 746, 138 Am.St.Rep. 77; 67 C.J. 689; Walker v. Harris, 238 Ala. 176,189 So. 746.
The major purpose and aspect of the bill in this case is to enjoin the respondent from wrongfully diverting the flow of water from its regular course on the stream originating at the spring and passing through the property of which the complainant is in rightful possession, said diversion being continuous and to the hurt of the complainant. The demurrer is addressed to the bill as a whole and construing the allegations of the bill most strongly against the pleader they show that the complainant is in the rightful possession of the premises as a licensee of the owner of the land with the right to use the waters of said stream to supply his minnow pools used in the propagation and raising of minnows for bait purposes; that the licensor is the owner of the land and the riparian rights to use the water flowing along the regular channel of said stream.
Therefore, if it be conceded that the complainant is not the owner, he is certainly the licensee, and the respondent, a wrongdoer, is without right so far as appears from the allegations of the bill to interfere with and interrupt the complainant in the use of said property. The fact that he occupies by mere license of the owner gives the respondent no right to interfere.
We are therefore of the opinion that the demurrer was erroneously sustained and a decree will be here entered overruling the demurrer and remanding the cause to the circuit court for further proceeding. The *Page 306 
defendant is allowed thirty days within which to plead.
Reversed, rendered and remanded.
BROWN, FOSTER, LAWSON and SIMPSON, JJ., concur.
LIVINGSTON and STAKELY, JJ., dissent.
GARDNER, C. J., not sitting.