38 M.R.S. § 703

This is the official text of 38 M.R.S. § 703, part of Maine’s M.R.S — part of the compiled statutory law of Maine, published by the state as "M.R.S." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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38 §703. Defenses

Official statutory text

The owner or occupant of such mill or canal may answer that the plaintiff has no right, title or estate in the lands alleged to be injured; or that the owner or occupant has a right to maintain such dam, and flow the lands, or divert the water for an agreed price, or without any compensation; or any other matter that may show that the plaintiff cannot maintain the action; but the owner or occupant may not answer that the land described is not injured by such dam or canal. [RR 2021, c. 2, Pt. B, §248 (COR).]

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.