Cline v. American Aggregates Corp.

American Aggregates (defendant) pumped groundwater from a shared aquifer while quarrying limestone, and 26 nearby landowners (plaintiffs) whose domestic wells drew from the same aquifer alleged the pumping dewatered and polluted their wells. Ohio's existing common law, the "English rule," gave landowners an absolute right to withdraw percolating groundwater with no liability to neighbors, so the trial court dismissed the suit; the court of appeals affirmed but urged the state supreme court to reconsider the rule.