Court case(1859) 7 HLC 349

The plaintiff owned an ancient water mill on a river, which he had worked for many years by the flow of the river. The flow was fed in part by underground water percolating through the surrounding land in no defined channel. The defendant, acting for a local Board of Health, sank a large well on land belonging to the Board and pumped up great quantities of water to supply the town of Croydon. This intercepted underground water which would otherwise have found its way into the river, so that the flow of the river was reduced and the plaintiff's mill lost much of its water power. The plaintiff sued for the injury to his mill.

The House of Lords held that the action failed. The owner of land is entitled to sink wells on it and to draw the underground water percolating beneath it in undefined channels, even though he thereby diminishes the supply of water to a neighbour's stream or well. The right of a riparian owner extends to the water flowing in a known and defined channel, not to the underground percolating water that feeds the stream before it reaches the surface. The plaintiff had suffered real loss of water power, but since no legal right of his had been violated, the loss was without injury in law.