In City of Columbia v. Lentz, 39 Tenn. App. 350, 282 S.W.2d 787 (1955), the Court of Appeals of Tennessee addressed the issue of whether a city sewage drain that crossed the plaintiffs' farm and emptied into a creek running along side the farm had caused a nuisance. The plaintiffs complained that the sewer overflowed causing raw sewage to accumulate on their land, and that the quantity of sewage released into the creek had so polluted it that their livestock would not drink the water. The city argued that its sewage drain could not cause a nuisance as the plaintiffs' predecessors in title had executed two deeds conveying easements to the city that allowed the sewer to cross the land and empty into the creek. The Tennessee court observed that over the years following the installation of the sewage drain, the area served by the sewer had grown. In response to this growth, the city had allowed new residents and business owners to tap into the sewer line. The additional use caused such an increase in the flow of sewage that "in times of freshets or rises in the creek the sewage would back up in the pipe line, run through the top of the manholes, overflow parts of plaintiffs' field, and large quantities of offal and filth would be left there, in the creek, and along its banks." City of Columbia at 356, 282 S.W.2d at 790. The court further observed that, in an effort to relieve the pressure in the sewer line, the city "made an additional outlet for the sewer at the southern edge of plaintiffs' farm" and "constructed a backflow line running from the manhole there back to the creek, emptying sewage into the creek at the southern side of the farm." Id. Ultimately, the court concluded that the city had, indeed, utilized the sewer line in such a way as to create a nuisance. In reaching this conclusion, the court acknowledged the existence of the easements authorizing the sewer line, but explained that the city's use of the sewer line had exceeded the scope of those easements. In this regard, the court stated: there is nothing in either of these deeds giving the city the right to empty the sewage at the south or second outlet, or at any other point in the stream above the original outlet at the north side of the farm. Nor is there anything in either of the deeds which authorized the city to overflow the sewage through the manholes and upon this bottom field. (Id. at 358, 282 S.W.2d at 791.)