Irving Kossoff, Doing Business as Lane Stationery Company v. Rathgeb-Walsh, Inc.

Summary

The Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of the plaintiff's claim that the defendant, by paving and grading its higher-elevation lot for a gasoline service station, was liable for water that seeped into the plaintiff's basement. The court held that under New York common law each landowner may improve his property without liability for diffused surface water, absent drains or pipes, and that the plaintiff could not impose a duty on the defendant to keep the land in its natural state.