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Baumann v. Snider

Plaintiffs were entitled to punitive damages for their neighbors' refusal to fix their garden's underground gutters which were causing erosion and soil buildup along a fence on plaintiffs' property.

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Christopher and Karen Baumann sued their neighbors, Michael Snider and Julie Abston, for trespass and nuisance, claiming that improvements Snider and Abston had made to their property caused increased rainwater runoff onto the Baumanns’ property. After a jury found in favor of the Baumanns, Snider and Abston filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, which the trial court granted. The Baumanns appeal and, for reasons that follow, we reverse and remand with direction.

The evidence, viewed most favorably to support the jury verdict, shows the following. The Baumanns’ home lies downhill from the neighboring Snider/Abston residence. There is a natural runoff of rainwater from the Snider/Abston property to the Baumann property. After Snider and Abston purchased their residence in 1992, they gradually stripped the existing vegetation on their lot, which had previously included a dense ivy cover, and graded the property until it was mostly dirt. They hired a landscape firm to design and construct a Japanese garden, including a dry stream bed built of rocks. The construction included four underground gutters that fed into the streambed, which terminated at the Baumanns’ property line.

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