THE IKRIGATION AGE. 



221 



Supreme Court Decisions 



Irrigation Cases 



WELL DRILLING CONTRACT. 



When a well driller, under contract to drill a well 

 until he found water or receive no pay, stopped be- 

 fore finding water in appreciable quantities, he could 

 not recover for his work. Turner v. Hartsell. Court 

 of Appeals of Alabama. 58 Southern 950. 

 ECONOMICAL DIVERSION. 



A prior appropriator of water for irrigation did 

 not employ a reasonable and economical method of 

 diverting it where he permitted two-thirds of the wa- 

 ter diverted to become lost in a swamp without any 

 good excuse therefor. Doherty v. Pratt. Supreme 

 Court of Nevada. 124 Pacific 574. 

 RIGHTS OF COUNTIES IN WATER. 



A county could, by 10 years' prescriptive use of 

 water from springs in a highway for the maintenance 

 of a water trough, acquire a right as against the owner 

 of the fee to have such water. Kiscr v. Douglas 

 County. Supreme Court of Washington, 126 Pacific 

 622. 

 CONVEYANCE OF WATER RIGHTS. 



A water right is real estate, and must be con- 

 veyed as real estate ; and, where one has a valid water 

 permit issued to him by the state engineer, he cannot 

 convey the water right secured thereby by simply 

 handing the permit to a would-be purchaser. Card v. 

 Thompson. Supreme Court of Idaho. 123 Pacific 497. 



SUBTERRANEAN WATERS. 



Subterranean or percolating water is not gov- 

 erned by the rules applicable to running streams, but 

 the proprietor of the soil where such water is found 

 may control and use it as he pleases to improve his 

 own land, though his use or control may incidentally 

 injure an adjoining proprietor. Ryan v. Quintan. Su- 

 preme Court of Montana. 124 Pacific 512. 

 APPROPRIATION. 



The current of a river cannot be appropriated by 

 a riparian proprietor in Idaho to the extent necessary 

 to operate the water wheels used by him to divert the 

 water actually appropriated for a beneficial use, so 

 as to give him a right of action for the destruction of 

 the current by subsequent appropriators, when exer- 

 cising their right, under Idaho Const, art. 15, 3, to 

 apply the unused water to beneficial uses, even as- 

 suming the coexistence in that state of a system of 

 riparian rights and the doctrine of appropriation. 

 Schodde v. Twin Falls Land & Water Co. Supreme 

 Court of the United States. 32 Sup. Ct. Rep. 470. 

 LIABILITY OF IRRIGATION COMPANY. 



Under Irrigation Act 1895 (Acts 24th Leg. c. 21), 

 11, as amended by Acts 24th Leg. c. 23, providing 

 that in case of shortage of water from drought or 

 accident it shall be distributed pro rata and without 

 preference, a failure by an irrigation company to fur- 

 nish a customer sufficient water to raise a full crop 

 on a stimpulated number of acres according to con- 

 tract will not subject the company to damages if com- 

 pliance therewith would, on account of shortage of 

 water from such causes, deprive other customers of 

 (Continued on page 242) 



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