irs 



THE IREIGATION AGE. 



Supreme Court Decisions 



Irrigation Cases 



TEMPORARY STORAGE OF WATER. 



Priority of water for storage purposes cannot be secured 

 by a temporary storing of water for immediate irrigation in 

 temporary receptacles, forming part of a continuous conduit 

 for carrying water from the stream directly to irrigate lands. 

 Windsor Reservoir & Canal Co. v. Lake Supply Ditch Co. 

 Supreme Court of Colorado. 98 Pacific 729. 



REVOCATION OF PAROL LICENSE. 



Where defendant granted plaintiff's assignors a parol 

 license to construct an irrigation canal over defendant's land, 

 and plaintiff's assignors entered and expended a large sum 

 of money in the construction of the canal, a license to main- 

 tain it was irrevocable. Miller & Lux v. Kern County Land 

 Co. Supreme Court of California. 99 Pacific 179. 



SOURCE OF WATER. 



With the limitation that the use of water for irrigation, 

 so far as it affects the rights of others similarly situated, must 

 be reasonable, the riparian right to use water on adjoining 

 land for irrigation applies as well to the water of a lake, 

 pond or slough as to a flowing stream. Turner v. James 

 Canal Co. Supreme Court of California. 99 Pacific 520. 



VENDOR'S LIABILITY FOR DIVERSION. 



The original owner of land for which water was appro- 

 priated is hot liable to a purchaser of one of the tracts into 

 which the land was divided for subsequent acts of third per- 

 sons in diverting water from the ditch, nor for wrongful 

 diversion of water by his lessee while such owners was not 

 in possession. Booth v. Trager. Supreme Court of Colorado. 

 99 Pacific 60. 



REVOCATION OF LICENSE. 



Where plaintiff attempted to appropriate water on the 

 land of another without grant, condemnation proceedings or 

 prescription, the right acquired amounted to a license with- 

 out consideration or coupled with an interest, which was 

 revocable at the pleasure of the licensor or his successor, and 

 was revoked by the latter's obstruction of the flow. Prentice 

 v. McKay. Supreme Court of Montana. 98 Pacific 1081. 



ESTABLISHED RATES FOR IRRIGATION. 



Under the provision of act March 12, 1885 (St. 1885, p. 

 95, c. 115), that the use of all water appropriated for sale, 

 rental or distribution in the state shall be a public use, a 

 company furnishing appropriated water for irrigation pur- 

 poses has only the constitutional right that its property shall 

 not be taken for public use without just compensation, viz., 

 a fair return on the reasonable value of the property at the 

 time it is being use for the public benefit. San Joaquin & 

 Kings River Canal & Irrigation Co. y. Stanislaus County. 

 Supreme Court of California. 99 Pacific 365. 



SUBDIVISION OF LAND. 



Where land for which a specified amount of water had 

 been appropriated was divided into small tracts, in the ab- 

 sence of a contrary showing, and where the original owner 

 and a purchaser of a tract recognized that each owner owned 

 his proportionate share of the water, for the purpose of an 

 action by such purchaser against the original owner for 

 diverting water, it will be assumed that such purchaser owns 

 the proportion of the water awarded to the entire tract that 

 his tract bears to the entire tract. Booth v. Trager. Su- 

 preme Court of Colorado. 99 Pacific 60. 



DELAY IN DELIVERY OF ENGINE FOR IRRIGATION. 



Where a seller, contracting to construct and deliver an 

 engine for irrigating work, delayed the delivery thereof but 

 it appeared that the engine, which was delivered before a 

 pump subsequently contracted for was delivered was useless 

 without the pump and the seller built the pump according to 

 a model furnished by the buyer, the delay in the delivery of 

 the engine, on which alone plaintiff relied, did not cause any 

 damage to the buyer, especially when the pump furnished 

 was incapable of doing the work for which it was designed. 



Hendry v. Irvine. Court of Appeal, First District, California. 

 99 Pacific 408. 



ARTIFICIAL CHANNELS. 



After high water channels are artificially opened, and 

 after they, together with the cuts dug connecting them with 

 the main stream, have been used by the parties opening them 

 and by their successors in interest, and such use is acquiesced 

 in and recognized as branches of the main creek by others 

 on the main stream and its tributaries and branches, for the 

 period prescribed by the statute of limitations, they become 

 natural channels, and owners of lands adjacent thereto are 

 in law entitled to the same consideration and to the same 

 rights as are those of the main and unquestioned channel. 

 Hough v. Porter. Supreme Court of Oregon. 98 Pacific 

 1083. 



RIPARIAN RIGHTS. 



During the winter and spring months, on account of 

 rainfalls and the melting snows in the watershed of a stream, 

 it carried a large volume of water, which at all stages flowed 

 in a continuous body, though the channel of the stream and 

 its branches were overflowed so that the water spread over 

 adjacent land. The overflow might be anticipated in every 

 season of ordinary rainfall, and failed to occur only in sea- 

 sons of drouth. Held, that the waters constituted but a 

 single water course, and riparian rights pertained to the 

 whole therof. Miller & Lux v. Madera Canal & Irrigation 

 Co. Supreme Court of California. 99 Pacific 502. 



PAROL DITCH LICENSE. 



Where a complaint for violation of plaintiff's right to 

 maintain an irrigation ditch on defendant's land, after plead- 

 ing a written agreement conferring on plaintiff's predecessors 

 such right of way, alleged that defendant's agents co-operated 

 in laying out the lines and locating a canal to conduct the 

 water over defendant's land, and' that plaintiff's ditch was 

 constructed openly, with defendant's knowledge, and that 

 defendant's officers encouraged the construction, such facts 

 warranted an inference that plaintiff relied on a parol license 

 to maintain the canal, and did not intend to limit its rights 

 to those acquired under the written contract. Miller & Lux 

 v. Kern County Land Co. Supreme Court of California. 99 

 Pacific 179. 



DAMAGES FOR BREACH OF CONTRACT TO DELIVER WATER. 



In an action for damages alleged to have been caused 

 by reason of defendant failing to comply with his contract 

 to sell and deliver upon plaintiff's land a water right and a 

 certain number of inches of water, it is error to admit evi- 

 dence as to the value of buildings and improvements made 

 by the plaintiff upon the lands in order to show the amount 

 of damages sustained by him, unless it appears that no like 

 water right could have been purchased at the time of the 

 breach of the contract or at any time thereafter prior to the 

 trial. In such case the measure of damages sustained is the 

 difference between the contract price for the sale and de- 

 livery of the water, and the price for which such water and 

 water right can be aquired at the time of the breach of the 

 contract, together with whatever sum the purchaser had paid 

 on the purchase price for such water and water right. 

 Gagnon v. Molden. Supreme Court of Idaho. 99 Pacific 965. 



SHOSHONE. 



Idaho. 



Shoshone is one of the good towns, located in the best 

 portion of the wonderful Snake River Valley of Southern 

 Idaho. It has a population of about 1,500 people, is the 

 county seat of Lincoln county, and is located on the main 

 line of the Oregon Short Line Railroad and also on the 

 branch railroad running from Shosh6ne to Ketchum and 

 on the proposed electric road which is to connect all of the 

 towns in this section of the country. 



Shoshone has made wonderful progress during the 

 last twelve months, and even the more conservative busi- 

 ness men confidentially expect to see the town double its 

 present population within the next two years. At the 

 present time it is impossible to build houses fast enough 

 to supply the demand. People are living in tents and old 

 shacks of every description until new residences can be 

 constructed for them. A large number of buildings are 



