48 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Supreme Court Decisions 



Irrigation Cases 



RIPARIAN RIGHTS. 



The fact that a tract of land touches a stream at 

 one point does not make such land riparian at other 

 points on the stream, or to the whole stream ; but the 

 riparian right of the owner of such lands is confined 

 to the points where the land abuts upon the stream. 

 .Miller v. Baker. Supreme Court of Washington. 122 

 Pacific 604. 

 ADVERSE USE. 



To establish title to running water against a prior 

 appropriation, it is necessary to show a continuous 

 use for 10 years under claim of title, and that such use 

 deprived the person from whom the adverse title is 

 claimed to have been acquired of water to which he 

 was entitled, and for which diversion he would have a 

 cause of action. Little Walla Irr. Union v. Finis Irr. 

 Co. Supreme Court of Oregon. 124 Pacific 666. 

 DrxY TO SUPPLY WATER TO NON-STOCKHOLDERS. 



Where a private corporation was organized to 

 supply water to stockholders only, the fact that it fur- 

 nished surplus water to another corporation as an ac- 

 commodation did not confer on the customers of the 

 latter the right to enjoin a discontinuance of the sup- 

 ply, on the theory that defendant thereby became a 

 public service corporation. Garrison v. North Pasa- 

 dena Land & IVatcr Co. Supreme Court of Califor- 

 nia. 124 Pacific 1009. 

 METHOD OF APPLICATION. 



Where old settlers acquired the right to use water 

 for irrigation under the federal statute of 1866 and 

 applied the same by inexpensive methods, they could 

 not be required to install new methods that would re- 

 duce to a minimum the amount of water necessary, at 

 a cost that would absorb their profits, because the 

 method used was to some extent extravagant in the 

 use of water. Little Walla Irr. Union v. Finis Irr. Co. 

 Supreme Court of Oregon. 124 Pacific 666. 

 DITCH BECOMING A NUISANCE. 



Under Const, art. 11, sec. 11, empowering any 

 municipality to enforce within its limits local, police, 

 sanitary, and other regulations, a municipal corpora- 

 tion has the right to require the closing of an open 

 irrigating ditch which has, for more than the statutory 

 period, been maintained at the side of a highway, such 

 ditch having become a nuisance through the growth 

 and development of the municipality. City of Santa 

 Ana v. Santa Ana Valley Irr. Co. Supreme Court of 

 California. 124 Pacific "847. 

 QUIETING TITLE. 



In an action to quiet title to water rights, evidence 

 that defendant purchased such rights from a former 

 record owner of the lands to which they were appurte- 

 nant in reliance on the statements of the holder of an 

 unrecorded deed that such record owner was the 

 owner and could make such conveyance was admis- 

 sible, although such facts were not pleaded as an 

 estoppel, since, although they might have constituted 



an estoppel, they also showed that defendant was a 

 purchaser in good faith. SKurtleff \. Bracken. 

 Supreme Court of California. 124 Pacific 724. 

 "NATURAL WATER COURSE." 



Where surface water in a hilly region of high 

 bluffs seeks an outlet through a gorge or ravine during 

 the rainy season and by its flow assumes a definite 

 and natural channel, and such has always been the 

 case so far as the memory of man runs, such accus- 

 tomed channel through which the water flows pos- 

 sesses the attributes of a natural water course. The 

 flow of the water need not be continuous, and the 

 size of the stream is immaterial. Jaquez Ditch Co. \. 

 Garcia. Supreme Court of New Mexico. 124 Pacific 

 891. 



RIGHT TO ENTER LAND. 



The entry upon private property for the purpose 

 of investigation, inspection, and the making of sur- 

 veys, plans, and specifications for the purpose of mak- 

 ing application for a permit does not necessarily re- 

 sult in the permanent taking of the real property of the 

 owner, but it necessitates the entry upon such land, 

 and the right to enter upon such land must be secured 

 either by agreement of the parties, or by condemnation 

 proceedings, and, without such remedy being pursued, 

 the entry, if made, is a trespass. Marshall v. Niagara 

 Springs Orchard Co. Supreme Court of Idaho. 125 

 Pacific 208. 

 SUIT AGAINST IRRIGATION DISTRICT. 



Taxpayers residing within an irrigation district 

 organized under St. Cal. 1887, p. 33, known as the 

 Wright Act, cannot maintain a suit in equity to en- 

 join the prosecution of an action at law brought 

 against the district on its bonds on the ground that 

 the bonds are void, that the persons served are not 

 officers of the district, and that it has no officers to 

 represent it, and especially where it is not shown that 

 any application has been made to the board of super- 

 visors of the county to appoint directors for the dis- 

 trict as authorized by section 10 of the act in case of 

 vacancies. Quint on v. Equitable Inv. Co. U. S. Cir- 

 cuit Court of Appeals. 196 Federal 314. 

 SUIT AGAINST LAND OFFICE. 



Where it was claimed that the United States had 

 contracted for the sale of a water right under the Re- 

 clamation Act for the irrigation of certain lands en- 

 tered by the complainant and situated within the dis- 

 trict of lands compromising a reclamation project in 

 consideration of $26 per acre, payable in installments, 

 a suit against the register and receiver of the Land 

 Office, the engineer in charge of the work, and the 

 United States fiscal agents appointed to collect the 

 charge to restrain them from extending or collecting 

 assessments in excess of $26 per acre was, in fact, a 

 suit to compel specific performance of a contract 

 against the United States and unsustainable without 

 the government's consent. Plain v. Home. U. S. Cir- 

 cuit Court, District of Idaho. 196 Federal 582. 

 PRESCRIPTIVE RIGHT. 



Where defendants' predecessors in title had ac- 

 quired the right to obstruct the outlet of a lake by a 

 prior appropriation, for the purpose of creating water 

 power, but from 1892 to 1909, during which time 



