“5-years ago i purchased 8 acres of land with no structures on it and no easements . recently i started to bull doze a road through this property at one point i encountered a wet spewage area that keep my road wet —i asked around and was told that it must be a spring causing this problem. since i could not have this wet place in my drive i hired a backhoe to come and dig down and insert a pipe under the ground to try a channel the water away to the road ditch. when they dug down they encountered a 1 inch water pipe that was broke—so this was what was causing my problem. the pipe was cut and capped–i then contacted the water district and surrounding homes to see if this line went to any of them—-no one claimed this water line—–2–months later a plumbing man contacted me—to ask a question about the water line—–seems that a house that had been for sale for a year bordering my property needed its water turned on—when they did — they had no water….so now we know where the water line went to—- i contacted the owner and he agreed to trench in another line if i would let him. i said ok—now 3 weeks later i get a summons that i am being sued in small claims court for not fixing his water line—–the line is 42 feet deep into my propery and travels a distance of 600 feet on my property—-i had agreed to let him trench up my property line and lay a new water line—this would give him water and keep it out of my way to—-also he does not own the property bordering me either for this 600 feet… what can i do?”

Talk to an attorney, now. My guess is that the neighbor is going the cheap, small claims route to try to put pressure on you, but that he really doesn’t have a good claim. When he’s faced with the counter-claims that a good attorney will think of, it’s likely that he’ll start being more reasonable.