Rights in Percolating Waters

Almost without exception the courts approve of Acton v. Blundell, 12 M. & W. 324, to the extent of its actual decision,-that where as a result of improvement or enjoyment of one's own land one conducts operations which draw off percolating waters from a neighbor's land, even to the extent of drying up a well or spring, such inconvenience is to be deemed damnum absque injuria. The doctrine of the court "that the person who owns the surface may dig therein, and apply all that is there found to his own purposes at his free will and pleasure," if intended to be taken as broadly as stated and not limited to the facts then before the court, has not received such uniform support.