Legal Term: INUNDATION

Definition: The overflow of waters by coming out of their bed. 2. Inundations may arise from three causes; from public necessity, as in defence of a place it may be necessary to dam the current of a stream, which will cause an inundation to the upper lands; they may be occasioned by an invincible force, as by the accidental fall of a rock in the stream; or they may result from the erections of works on the stream. In the first case, the injury caused by the inundation is to be compensated as other injuries done in war; in the second, as there was no fault of any one, the loss is to be borne by the unfortunate owner of the estate; in the last, when the riparian. proprietor is injured by such works as alter the level of the water where it enters or where it leaves the property on which they are erected, the person injured may recover damages for the injury thus caused to his property by the innundation. 9 Co. 59; 4 Day s R. 244; 17 Serg. & Rawle, 383; 3 Mason s R. 172; 7 Pick. R. 198; 7 Cowen, R. 266; 1 B. & Ald. 258; 1 Rawle s R. 218; 5 N. H. Rep. 232; 9 Mass. R. 316; 4 Mason s R. 400; 1 Sim. & Stu. 203; 1 Come s R. 460. Vide Schult. Aq. R. 122; Ang. W. C. 101; 5 Ohio, R. 322, 421; and art. Dam.

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