Herrmann v. Larson

7 N.W.2d 330, 214 Minn. 46, 1943 Minn. LEXIS 572
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedJanuary 2, 1943
DocketNo. 33,191.
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 7 N.W.2d 330 (Herrmann v. Larson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Herrmann v. Larson, 7 N.W.2d 330, 214 Minn. 46, 1943 Minn. LEXIS 572 (Mich. 1943).

Opinion

Henrt M. Gallagher, Chief Justice.

In this action to enjoin an alleged nuisance and for damages, the trial court made findings of fact and conclusions of law favorable to defendant. Plaintiff appeals from an order denying his alternative motion for amended findings or a new trial.

Plaintiff owns and operates an 88-acre farm in Carver county. His dwelling house is located on the south 58 acres and his barn and other buildings on the north 30 acres. A public highway running east and west intersects the two tracts. When plaintiff purchased the farm in 1926, three or four acres in the northeast part of the north thirty tract were covered with willows. In 1929 he cleared the willows and later tiled the ground and put in crops. In 1932 he seeded it and has since used it as part of his pasture.

Defendant owns and operates a creamery located on the southwest corner of the 30-acre tract which he purchased from plaintiff in 1926. He has operated a creamery at substantially the same site since 1899 or 1900, when he leased the land from plaintiff’s predecessor in ownership “for as long as a Creamery or Cheese Factory is maintained and operated on said premises.” After purchasing the parcel of ground from plaintiff in 1926, he erected his present creamery thereon. From 1899 to 1931 defendant confined his operations to making and shipping butter and shipping sweet cream. In 1931 he began bottling milk for shipment and now receives about 10,000 pounds of raw milk and 1,000 pounds of cream daily, all of which is bottled except the sour cream, which is made into butter. During the first years of defendant’s creamery business water was supplied from a two-inch tubular well, which gave out about 1920. It is now furnished by one four-inch and two three-inch wells. Water is used for washing about 6,000 bottles *48 daily, cleaning the churns, scrubbing and cleaning the creamery, and in the washroom and lavatory. Defendant’s home, located nearby, has a septic tank into which the toilet empties, and the overflow therefrom connects with the creamery drain. The creamery is also equipped with a toilet and washroom, which connected with the creamery drain until after the commencement of this action, when defendant installed a septic tank, into which the waste now empties. The overflow from this tank likewise goes into the drain.

All the drainage from the creamery and from defendant’s dwelling house empties into an eight-inch sewer pipe which extends about 50 feet north on defendant’s land and thence northeasterly over plaintiff’s land a distance of about 600 feet. The pipe ends on plaintiff’s property and empties into a “pot hole.” Three or four acres around this so-called “pot hole” are claimed to be submerged in the waste water from defendant’s creamery, the destruction of the vegetation thereabout and the foul odors emanating therefrom constituting the alleged nuisance.

It appears that in 1931 plaintiff laid a 10-inch tile north from his building site along the east edge of his 30-acre tract ending about 100 feet from his north line. The water runs from there through a culvert and into an open ditch across the road. Shortly thereafter, defendant, at his own expense but with plaintiff’s consent, extended the tile into which his creamery drains a distance of about 220 feet east to plaintiff’s 10-inch tile and there connected it. The rest of the drainage system from the creamery was upon the land when plaintiff purchased it in 1926. Some months after defendant extended his tile to connect with plaintiff’s, an adjoining neighbor complained to both plaintiff and defendant, whereupon about 80 feet of it was removed. There is a dispute in the testimony as to whether it was removed by plaintiff or by defendant or by their joint action. Plaintiff testified that it was taken up by defendant’s son after he and Mr. Eggers, the complaining neighbor, went to see defendant about it, and Eggers told defendant that about 80 feet of the tile would have to be taken out.

*49 On cross-examination, defendant testified that Eggers was the person who asked him to take np the tile and that plaintiff was not present during the conversation and did not request him to do it. Asked whether his son took up the tile, defendant answered, ‘Well, I will tell you, to he honest I cannot tell, hut I don’t think so.” He further testified that he believed plaintiff took it out. We have referred to this testimony because of its relation to a point later to be considered.

Plaintiff claims that ever since defendant established his bottling works in 1931 large quantities of water containing obnoxious substances pour onto his land by way of defendant’s drain and spread over about four acres of his pasture, killing the vegetation and creating noisome odors; that flies are attracted to and breed in the slush; that his cattle tramp in the mud and filth, which accumulates on their legs and bodies so that they have to be washed before they can be milked; and that the cows carry the stench with them up into plaintiff’s barnyard.

Defendant admits the extent of his operations and that the water and refuse therefrom flows upon plaintiff’s land. In defense he asserts (1) a prescriptive right to maintain the drain; (2) an implied grant of an easement of drainage over and upon plaintiff’s land by virtue of the lease from plaintiff’s predecessor in title and the deed from plaintiff; (3) a right to drain arising out of his agreement with plaintiff in 1931 whereby plaintiff permitted him to extend his tile and connect it with plaintiff’s drain.

The trial court adopted defendant’s view and found: That plaintiff knew his predecessors in title had acquiesced in the use of the land in question for drainage purposes by defendant for many years; that he knew defendant’s creamery waste had to be discharged on the adjoining property at the time he purchased the farm; that there was no other available place for drainage except upon plaintiff’s land; and that plaintiff, knowing these facts, permitted defendant to build a new creamery in 1926 involving appreciable expense to defendant. It was further found that plaintiff suffered no damage by reason of the operation of the *50 creamery and the discharge therefrom other than would ordinarily and normally follow from the exercise by defendant of the rights acquired by him under his lease and deed; that no greater burden of water or waste was added after the commencement of the bottling operations in 1931; that in 1931 plaintiff and defendant agreed that defendant might continue and extend his drain to connect with plaintiff’s tile; that pursuant to such agreement defendant at considerable expense extended his tile so as to connect with plaintiff’s; that such connection did not cause damage to any adjoining landowner; that thereafter on plaintiff’s demand 80 feet of the defendant’s tile were removed, which permitted the creamery waste to discharge again upon plaintiff’s land. The court made the following conclusions of law:

“1.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
7 N.W.2d 330, 214 Minn. 46, 1943 Minn. LEXIS 572, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/herrmann-v-larson-minn-1943.