Vanderwerff Et Ux. v. Consumers Gas Co. Et Al‪.‬

In 1923 E. Richard Meining bought about 159 acres of land in the eighteenth Ward of the City of Reading. A mortgage on the entire tract given by him as part consideration for the purchase was assigned by his grantor to The Reading Trust Company. Shortly thereafter Meinig rehabilitated an ancient dwelling house on the premises and installed plumbing. A septic tank was constructed below ground east of the house, into which the wastes from the house flowed through an underground pipe. The effluent from the septic tank followed a natural southeastern drainage course. In 1928 Meinig laid out the tract into building lots and recorded a plot of the subdivision. The dwelling house occupies parts of lots 168 and 169. The septic tank is located east of the east line of lot 169 below ground wholly on the adjoining lot, 152. Meinig opened Gregg Avenue as shown on the recorded plan along the southerly line of the above lots, and in 1937, while he still owned the entire tract, installed a drainage system discharging the effluent from the septic tank southerly through lot 152 and across Gregg Avenue by means of subsurface terra cotta pipes and a french drain, into an old well just south of the road on lots 40 and 41 of the subdivision.