Neely v. Detroit Sugar Co.

101 N.W. 664, 138 Mich. 469, 1904 Mich. LEXIS 878
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 14, 1904
DocketDocket No. 109
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 101 N.W. 664 (Neely v. Detroit Sugar Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Neely v. Detroit Sugar Co., 101 N.W. 664, 138 Mich. 469, 1904 Mich. LEXIS 878 (Mich. 1904).

Opinion

Moore, O. J.

This is an action brought by the plaintiff to recover damages. The plaintiff claimed to be in possession of a flouring mill situated in the village of Roch[471]*471ester, on Paint creek. The mill was operated by water power, and connected with it was a raceway and a small pond, of about two acres in extent. Upstream from the plaintiff’s pond, and adjoining his pond, was located a tract of land owned by the defendant, the Detroit Sugar Company. In the year 1899 the defendant erected on its land a factory for the manufacture of sugar from beets. It used the water of Paint creek in the factory, taking the water from a small dam that extended across the creek above the factory. The drainage from the factory led into Paint creek above the pond of the plaintiff.

The claim of the .plaintiff was that the defendant had caused to be discharged into the creek beets, beet tops, and other refuse from its factory, and also mud more or less mixed with lime; that, after the first season’s operation of the defendant’s factory, these beets, beet tops, and other refuse floated downstream and obstructed the flow of water to the plaintiff’s mill wheel; that, after the second season’s operation of the defendant’s factory, plaintiff’s pond and race were partially filled by the discharge of mud and lime therefrom. A season’s operation of the sugar factory is generally referred to as a campaign.”

The defendant’s sugar factory was completed in the fall of 1899, and its first campaign began on the 2d day of November and continued until the 30th day of December of that year. The next campaign began on the 18th day of October, 1900, and ended on the 30th day of December of that year. The next campaign began on the 9th day of October, 1901, and continued until the 28th day of December of that year. This suit was commenced on the 16th day of July, 1902. The case was tried before a jury. Prom a judgment in favor of plaintiff, the case is brought here by writ of error.

The record contains nearly 150 pages. The jury were also taken to view the premises. In the bill of exceptions it is said a large amount of testimony was introduced by both parties not set forth in the bill of exceptions.

A reading of the charge made by the trial judge will [472]*472greatly aid in understanding the errors which are discussed by counsel. The charge is as follows:

“ Counsel of great ability and learning have spent six hours in arguing this case to you and setting forth the claims of their respective clients, and that makes it unnecessary for me to spend any length of time in reviewing the facts claimed in this case. Briefly stated, Mr. Neely and the Wilsons claim to be in possession of a mill and mill privilege and water power, and that the water privilege has been in use by them and their grantors a long time, and that the sugar-mill factory was built at a comparatively late period (in 1899, if I recollect the date); and it is the claim of the plaintiff that the sugar company have caused or allowed such amounts of dirt, lime, sediment, or lime mud, beets, and beet tops, to be deposited in the creek, and that they have been conveyed by Paint creek to the pond in question in such an unreasonable amount thereof as to have greatly injured the power furnished by the mill pond and Paint creek, and it is his claim that he is entitled by reason thereof to the loss of the rental value that has been occasioned to a large amount, and that he is entitled to recover the costs of removing the deposits .of lime mud, dirt, and sediment, and which he also claims would be very large.

“ The claim on the part of the defendant, briefly stated, is that the pond in question furnishes but very little addition to his water supply; that it has not been filled up to any material or appreciable extent, unless by natural causes, and that there has been no use of the creek as a deposit for sediment, lime, or mud, or the refuse from the factory, to any unreasonable amount, in this creek, at all, and that even if deposits of sediment have been conveyed from the factory to the pond in question, and along the raceway onto the plaintiff’s premises, still that there is a more practical way of removing it than that claimed by the plaintiff. The claim by the plaintiff is that it must be removed by hand power—that is, by shoveling and by use of wheelbarrows—while the claim of the defendant is that, by cutting or making an opening into the dam, it can be flushed out by the force of the stream, by the water itself, at a small expense.

“Now, all of the other claims principally growing out of these circumstances, and all this evidence, tend to support one or the other of these principal claims which are pre[473]*473sented to you. Now, to sustain the plaintiff’s claim, he must prove all parts of his claim, or, more correctly speaking, he must prove each one of his various claims that are material to the issue, by a fair preponderance of evidence. It is not for the defendant to disprove the claims of the plaintiff, but it is for the plaintiff to first prove his claim. The burden of proof is upon him to establish the various claims, let me repeat, by a fair preponderance of evidence; and by that term is meant such evidence as, when weighed with that which is offered to oppose it, has more convincing power in the minds of the jury. It is not a technical term at all, but means simply that evidence which outweighs that which is offered to oppose it. It does not mean necessarily that a greater number of witnesses shall be produced on the one side or the other, but that on the whole evidence the jury believe the greater probability of the truth to be on the side of the party having the affirmative of the issue, and in this case the affirmative of the issue is with the plaintiff.

“The legal claims are so thoroughly and completely covered by these requests which have been handed up that it will not be necessary for me to indulge at length in any general charge at all. There is nothing that I can say that would be anything more than a repetition of the language that is contained in these requests; and such of them as I read you, gentlemen, will be considered as good law and the charge of the court, and those that I omit will not have any bearing on the case at all, even if you did hear them read by counsel.

“On the part of the plaintiff I charge you, first, if the jury find from the evidence in this case that at the time of the commencement of this suit the plaintiff, Thomas Neely, was in the open and peaceable possession of the milling property mentioned in the declaration in this case, under a land contract for the purchase of the same from the Wilsons, and that they had, previous to the commencement of this suit, sold, assigned, and transferred to the plaintiff all their right, title, and interest in and to any and all of their claim for damages against the defendant, then such facts would constitute the plaintiff a sufficient owner of the said milling property to commence and maintain this suit.

“Second. If the jury find from the evidence in this case that at the time of the commencement of this suit, and for fifteen years and more prior thereto, there had been kept [474]*474up and maintained a water power and a dam at a certain height on the property described in the declaration, by the plaintiff or the parties from whom he claims, then the plaintiff would have the right at this time to keep up and maintain the said dam at said height, and would be the owner thereof, the same as though he had a deed or deeds of the same.

Third.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
101 N.W. 664, 138 Mich. 469, 1904 Mich. LEXIS 878, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/neely-v-detroit-sugar-co-mich-1904.