DRAIN - Black's Law Dictionary

Definition of DRAIN in Black's Law Dictionary 4th Edition – Legal dictionary – Glossary of legal terms.

Definition of DRAIN

v. To conduct water from one place to another, for the purpose of drying the former. To make dry; to draw off water; to rid land of its superfluous moisture by adapting or improving natural water courses and supplementing them, when necessary, by artificial ditches. People v. Parks, 58 Cal. 639.

To "drain," in its larger sense, includes not only the supplying of outlets and channels to relieve the land from water, but also the provision of ditches, drains, and embankments to prevent water from accumulating. Holt v. State, Tex.Civ.App., 176 S.W. 743, 746; In re Mississippi and Fox River Drainage Dist., 270 Mo. 157, 192 S.W. 727, 731; Pioneer Real Estate Co. v. City of Portland, 119 Or. 1, 247 P. 319, 323.

n. A trench or ditch to convey water from wet land; a channel through which water may flow off.

The word has no technical legal meaning. Any hollow space in the ground, natural or artificial, where water is collected and passes off, is a ditch or drain. Sherrod v. Battle, 154 N.C. 345, 70 S.E. 834, 836.

The term may be synonymous with "water course." Green v. County Com'rs of Harbine, 74 Ohio St. 318, 78 N.E. 521, 522.

"Sewers" differ from "drains" only in that the former are in cities, and generally covered over, while the latter are in rural communities, and open. Barton v. Drainage Dist. No. 30, 174 Ark. 173, 294 S.W. 418, 419. But "drains" may sometimes include sewers. City of Charlestown, 170 Ill. 336, 48 N.E. 985, 986. See, generally, Mound City Land & Stock Co. v. Miller, 170 Mo. 240, 70 S.W. 721, 724, 6 L.R.A. 190, 94 Am.St.Rep. 727.

Also, sometimes, the easement or servitude (acquired by grant or prescription) which consists in the right to drain water through another's land. See 3 Kent, Comm. 436; 7 M. & G. 354.

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That's the definition of DRAIN  in Black's Law Dictionary 4th Edition – Legal dictionary – Glossary of legal terms. Courtesy of Cekhukum.com.

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