A-B Cattle Co. v. United States

621 F.2d 1099, 223 Ct. Cl. 514, 1980 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 161
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedApril 30, 1980
DocketNo. 105-75
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 621 F.2d 1099 (A-B Cattle Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
A-B Cattle Co. v. United States, 621 F.2d 1099, 223 Ct. Cl. 514, 1980 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 161 (cc 1980).

Opinion

NICHOLS, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is a civil action brought pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1491 and the fifth amendment to the Constitution, by plaintiffs, A-B Cattle Company, et al., against defendant, the United States. The case is presently before this court on plaintiffs’ motion to amend their original petition, defendant’s opposition thereto and defendant’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim.

In their original petition as well as in their motion to amend, plaintiffs set forth two theories of defendant’s liability. First, plaintiffs allege that defendant failed to pay just compensation for property taken from them in violation of the fifth amendment. Secondly, plaintiffs allege that defendant’s actions in relation to the taking violated an express contract between the parties. Here, plaintiffs argue that a Declaration of Taking issued by the Department of the Interior pursuant to condemnation proceedings between the parties constitutes an express contract, imposing [518]*518the duty on defendant to act in such a way as not to interfere with plaintiffs’ property once the taking had occurred. Plaintiffs assert that this duty has been breached and demand compensation.

As will be discussed infra, this case has been subject to a long and tortured history. However, because there is but one single issue before us, i.e., whether to grant plaintiffs’ motion to amend, an end to such history is in sight. A denial of this motion would be dispositive of the case. For reasons asserted below, we do deny plaintiffs’ motion to amend and dismiss the cause of action.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

This controversy dates back to June 11, 1969. Defendant initiated a condemnation action in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado as part of the Frying Pan/Arkansas Reclamation Project. United States of America v. 508.88 Acres of Land, Civil Action No. C-1480, Plaintiffs’ Appendix, Exhibit A, pg. 22. (Hereinafter Plaintiffs’ Appendix). This project called for the construction of the Pueblo Dam across the Arkansas River, creating the Pueblo Reservoir. The dam also cut across the Bessemer Ditch, inundating its headgate and first four miles. The Bessemer Irrigating Ditch Company, with its 956 stockholders, operated the ditch. Before the construction of the Pueblo Reservoir, the headgate of the ditch had been on the Arkansas River a few miles west of Pueblo, Colorado. Defendant now supplies water for the Bessemer Ditch by way of an outlet in the dam which feeds water into the remainder of the ditch to the eastward, below the dam. The ditch proceeds in a generally easterly direction through Pueblo and reaches into an argicultural area. The main Bessemer Ditch is now about 35 miles long with 174 miles of laterals.

About 400 of the Bessemer Company’s 956 stockholders use the water from the ditch for irrigation of lawns, shrubs, gardens, and trees in connection with their homes. Some of the others use the water to irrigate their truck gardens. The remainder of the stockholders use the water to irrigate their farms.

[519]*519In its complaint before the District Court in the condemnation proceeding, the United States designated in rem the acreage to be taken and named the Bessemer Irrigating Ditch Company and its 956 stockholders as other defendants. It was proposed that the Federal Government would construct an outlet in the dam to deliver the quantity of water appropriated to the Bessemer Company’s stockholders under Colorado law, as it has done. The latter parties alleged in their answer that the water they would receive from the new outlet was inferior because it would not contain silt. This, the stockholders said, would make the substitute water inferior, and they demanded compensation for the difference. The reason for inferiority is that silty water sealed the ditch against leakage, while clear water scours the ditch and creates conditions under which 40 percent of the water is lost by leakage before it ever reaches the users. The water did not, before the taking, become silty on the land taken. It did so upstream on the Arkansas River or tributaries. The part of the ditch taken had been a mere conduit to deliver silty water to the part not taken.

In its Memorandum Opinion and Order entered May 8, 1973, the District Court concluded that the stockholders did have a property right to silty water and that such right had been taken by the government. See Plaintiffs’ Appendix, pgs. 60-61. On May 18,1973, the government filed a motion to reconsider or in the alternative a motion to certify the silt question to the Tenth Circuit. In its September 20,1973, order, the District Court denied the government’s motion to certify while modifying its May 8 opinion. The District Court concluded that the stockholders could be compensated for the loss of silt if it found "severance damages” to be appropriate. The court concluded that such damages would be appropriate if the stockholders could prove that the lands taken and the lands left to the stockholders were a single tract or unit. The District Court expressed its opinion that such proof would not be hard to establish. Id. at 64-66.

On April 7,1975, Bessemer Company and its stockholders (hereinafter plaintiffs) filed suit in this court seeking damages for the taking of their right to silty water. The case was assigned to the trial division. However, upon motion of the parties, the proceedings were suspended in [520]*520light of the Colorado Supreme Court decision in Jacobucci v. District Court of Jefferson County, 541 P.2d 667 (1975). There the court held that shareholders of a mutual ditch company are necessary parties in a state condemnation action seeking to obtain land and water rights of the ditch company. 541 P.2d at 673. In its May 8 opinion, the District Court had held that the Bessemer shareholders did not have to be joined in that proceeding. Plaintiffs’ Appendix at 57.

Believing now that some of its stockholders would have their "severance damages” adjudicated in District Court and some in the Court of Claims, Bessemer Company filed a motion with the District Court to certify the silt question to the Colorado Supreme Court. Bessemer stated that the reason for its motion was that it did not want the issue of "severance damages” transferred from the District Court to the Court of Claims until it was assured that the Court of Claims would apply the correct Colorado law. Moreover, Bessemer stated that if the District Court decided to transfer the "severance damages” issue to the Court of Claims, Bessemer would request the government to stipulate that it would not assert the defense of res judicata in the Court of Claims. Id. at 72-73.

In its June 18, 1976, Memorandum Opinion and Order, the District Court denied Bessemer’s motion to certify and held that while the shareholders might be necessary parties, they were not indispensable. Consequently, the June 11, 1969, suit would not be dismissed for nonjoinder. Id. at 85-88. The District Court went on to dismiss the claims relating to the silt, which it called a counterclaim, without prejudice to a determination in the Court of Claims. The District Court stated that Bessemer and its shareholders could pursue their claim relating the loss of silt in the appropriate forum, i.e.,

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621 F.2d 1099, 223 Ct. Cl. 514, 1980 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/a-b-cattle-co-v-united-states-cc-1980.