[585]. In Holbrook v. Morrison, 214 Mass. 209, a land owner put a sign on her land reading, “For Sale. Best Offer From Colored Family.” Defendant wished to sell but was also moved by ill will toward plaintiffs, whose real estate business was seriously interfered with by the threatened sale. See Ames, How Far an Act May Be a Tort Because of the Wrongful Motive of the Actor, 18 Harvard Law Rev. 411, 420; Smith, Crucial Issues in Labor Litigation, 20 Harvard Law Rev. 429, 453, 455.
[586]. In this case, however, the means used by defendant involved trespasses and fraud. See American Waltham Watch Co. v. United States Watch Co., 173 Mass. 85.
[587]. See Faloon v. Schilling, 29 Kan. 292.
“Spite fence.” Malicious use of property to the injury of a neighbor was held not actionable in Capital Bank v. Henty, 7 A. C. 741, 766 (semble); Giller v. West, 162 Ind. 17; Brostrom v. Lauppe, 179 Mass. 315; Bordeaux v. Greene, 22 Mont. 254; Mahan v. Brown, 13 Wend. 261; Auburn Co. v. Douglass, 9 N. Y. 444 (semble); Pickard v. Collins, 23 Barb. 444; Levy v. Brothers, 4 Misc. 48; Letts v. Kessler, 54 Ohio St. 73; Koblegard v. Hale, 60 W. Va. 37; Metzger v. Hochrein, 107 Wis. 267.
Contra Norton v. Randolph, 176 Ala. 381; Burke v. Smith, 69 Mich. 380; Flaherty v. Moran, 81 Mich. 52; Kirkwood v. Finegan, 95 Mich. 543; Peek v. Roe, 110 Mich. 52; Barger v. Barringer, 151 N. C. 433. See Wilson v. Irwin, 144 Ky. 311; Metz v. Tierney, 13 N. M. 363; Smith v. Speed, 11 Okl. 95; Haverstick v. Sipe, 33 Pa. St. 368; Shell v. Kemmerer, 13 Phila. 502; McCorkle v. Driskell, (Tenn.) 60 S. W. 172.
Malicious diversion of percolating water was held to give no right of action in Corporation of Bradford v. Pickles, [1895] A. C. 587; Meeker v. East Orange, 76 N. J. Law, 435; Phelps v. Nowlen, 72 N. Y. 39; Chatfield v. Wilson, 28 Vt. 49; Huber v. Merkel, 117 Wis. 355.
Contra Chasemore v. Richards, 7 H. L. Cas. 349, 388 (semble); Roath v. Driscoll, 20 Conn. 533, 540–44 (semble); Chesley v. King, 74 Me. 164 (semble); Stevens v. Kelley, 78 Me. 445, 452; Greenleaf v. Francis, 18 Pick. 119 (semble); Swett v. Cutts, 50 N. H. 439, 447 (semble); Wyandot Club Co. v. Sells, 3 Ohio N. P. 210; Wheatley v. Baugh, 25 Pa. St. 528, 533 (semble); Haldeman v. Bruckhart, 45 Pa. St. 514 (semble); Lybe’s Appeal, 106 Pa. St. 626 (semble); Williams v. Laden, 161 Pa. St. 283 (semble); Miller v. Black Rock Co., 99 Va. 747 (semble).
But cases of this type are now coming to be treated on a different principle of waste or unreasonable use of water underlying neighboring tracts. Gagnon v. French Lick Hotel Co., 163 Ind. 687; Barclay v. Abraham, 121 Ia. 619; Stillwater Water Co. v. Farmer, 89 Minn. 58; Springfield Waterworks Co. v. Jenkins, 62 Mo. App. 74.
(1) Has the owner of land the same ownership and control of percolating water (water passing, or filtering, through the ground beneath the surface of the earth, without flowing in definite channels), that he has of the soil, e. g., the sand and the rocks?
Or (2) has he only a limited and qualified right in the percolating water; a right of reasonable user limited by the correlative rights of his neighbors?