## Facts

- Anthony and Helen Yonadi owned a golf course and restaurant property south of Allaire Road in Spring Lake Heights, New Jersey.
- North of Allaire Road, a roughly 40-acre tract formerly used as farmland naturally drained southerly toward and through the Yonadis’ land.
- Corporate developers converted the tract into a residential subdivision (approximately 169 houses), adding streets, catch basins, and subsurface drains.
- The drainage system artificially collected and conveyed surface water along the southerly drainage path, increasing the volume and concentration of runoff crossing onto plaintiffs’ property.
- Evidence indicated runoff from the developed area was about 3.5 times that produced by the prior farmland.
- During heavy rains, plaintiffs’ property experienced flooding that interfered with use of the golf course and related operations.
- After a bench trial, the court awarded plaintiffs $2,500 in damages against the developers and the borough and entered an injunction restraining harmful collection/diversion and ordering defendants to “accomplish this work” within 90 days.

## Issues

1. Whether parties who improve land and construct drains are liable for a resulting substantial increase in surface-water flow onto adjoining property that causes damage.
2. Whether injunctive relief may issue to abate such drainage-related harm, and whether the injunction must describe required remedial acts with specificity.

## Decision

- The Appellate Division affirmed the imposition of liability based on defendants’ artificial drainage system that substantially increased and concentrated runoff onto plaintiffs’ land and caused flooding.
- The court upheld the availability of both damages and injunctive relief for the condition.
- The court modified the decree because the injunction was not sufficiently specific; it required revision to state in reasonable detail the acts required so defendants could know what they must do to comply.

## Legal Principles

- An owner may reasonably improve and develop land, including making reasonable drainage changes consistent with the tract’s general grading.
- An owner may not artificially collect and discharge surface water in a concentrated manner, or substantially increase the flow onto neighboring property, when it causes actual damage.
- Public entities may be subject to damages and equitable relief where their acceptance, maintenance, or participation in drainage improvements contributes to the harmful condition.
- An injunction must state with reasonable detail and precision the conduct restrained or the affirmative acts required; a general directive to “accomplish” unspecified work is insufficient.

## Conclusion

The court sustained damages and equitable relief against private developers and a municipality for flooding caused by an artificial drainage system that substantially increased and concentrated surface-water runoff onto neighboring land, but required the injunction to be rewritten with specific, detailed compliance terms.


Yonadi v. Homestead Country Homes, Inc., 114 A.2d 564 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 1955)