Bethune v. Salt River Valley Water Users' Ass'n

227 P. 989, 26 Ariz. 525, 1924 Ariz. LEXIS 188
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 19, 1924
DocketCivil No. 2323
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 227 P. 989 (Bethune v. Salt River Valley Water Users' Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bethune v. Salt River Valley Water Users' Ass'n, 227 P. 989, 26 Ariz. 525, 1924 Ariz. LEXIS 188 (Ark. 1924).

Opinion

LYMAN, J.

— An injunction to restrain the Salt Biver Valley Water Users’ Association, an Arizona corporation, from proceeding with the preliminary steps toward the construction of a dam across the Salt Biver is the relief sought for in this action by the appellant, a shareholder in that company. The superior court not only denied the relief and dismissed the complaint, but made specific findings that the action contemplated by the corporation, and sought to be enjoined, was a lawful exercise of its corporate functions, and not in violation of law. That judgment is here for review.

The Salt Biver Valley Water Users’ Association was organized for the purpose of serving to certain lands of the Salt Biver Valley, in co-operation with government aid, water for irrigation, together with such other activities as might naturally and legitimately be incident to the purposes of irrigation. The development of electrical energy has naturally and inevitably proceeded with the impounding and the distribution of water for irrigation under the Salt Biver project. The construction of irrigation works for this project was begun and presumably carried to a degree of completion under the direction of the reclamation service of the United States government. A substantial portion of the initial cost of this construction was expended for works and equipment for developing power from waters impounded primarily for the purposes of irrigation. The power plants then built have from time to time since been enlarged and added to both by the reclamation service, and by the Water Users’ Association,

As the result of an agreement between the United States of America and the Water Users’ Association, [529]*529of September 6, 1917, “the care, operation, and maintenance of the irrigation works known as the Salt River project,” which had before then been under the supervision and control of the Secretary of the Interior of the United States, became vested in that association, and has since by it been operated, maintained, and with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior enlarged, notably by the construction of the Mormon Flat dam, designed both to conserve water for irrigation and to develop power. The authority of the association, acting with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, to construct that dam, was questioned in the case of Orme v. Salt River Valley Water Users’ Association, 25 Ariz. 324, 217 Pac. 935. The power of the association to build the Mormon Flat dam and install machinery for the development of electricity from waters impounded by that dam was challenged by the plaintiffs in that case upon the ground that it involved an unlawful exercise of power by the association. The problems involved in that action were all solved favorably to the association.

It is now proposed to build another dam across Salt River, and to install machinery at that point for the purpose of developing electrical power. The authority of the association to do this is questioned in this case.

The actions sought to be restrained in this case are defined in several propositions, which the association proposes to submit to a vote of its shareholders. These propositions are substantially as follows:

Shall the corporate indebtedness be increased to the extent of $4,400,000 for the purpose of constructing a dam to be known as the Horse Mesa development No. 1?

Shall the association guarantee the payment of bonds of the agricultural improvement district No. 2, aggregating the sum of $1,578,000 under the terms of a contract between the association and said improvement district, the proceeds of such bonds to be [530]*530used in part for providing irrigation and drainage service to that district, and in part for the construction of said Horse Mesa dam?

Shall the association guarantee the payment of the bonds of Roosevelt agricultural improvement district No. 1, aggregating the sum of $665,000, in accordance with the terms of a contract between the association and that district, the proceeds from the sale of such bonds to be used in part for providing irrigation and drainage service for the lands of the district, and in part for the construction of said Horse Mesa dam?

Shall the bonds of the association in the sum of $2,500,000 he issued and sold for the purpose of raising further funds to be used in the construction of the Horse Mesa dam, and shall their payment be assured by an assessment to be levied upon the lands of the shareholders of the association?

Shall the association be authorized to pledge for the payment of the bonds last mentioned the proceeds of a contract by which the association sells and the Inspiration Consolidated Copper Company buys electrical power?

The judgment is said to be erroneous upon several grounds. Appellant objects that the construction of the Horse Mesa dam, which he asserts is designed solely for the purpose of generating electrical power, is fundamentally wrong and unauthorized by the articles of association, which provide primarily for the carrying on of the business of developing and distributing water for irrigation, and are not sufficiently comprehensive to authorize the construction of dams and equipment to generate electricity, which have no incidental relation to the main object of the corporation.

Admitting, for the purpose of this argument, the fact, which is not wholly true, that this dam will not conserve the supply of water for irrigation, we will consider the question as stated by the appellant.

[531]*531The physical conditions surrounding and affecting the irrigation works of the association have a direct and controlling bearing upon the question. The Roosevelt reservoir, from which the stored water of the association is derived, is situated fifty miles or more from the point from which its waters are ultimately diverted to the various canals through which they are distributed to the lands of the shareholders. In passing over that distance along the bed of the Salt River, the waters released from the reservoir fall a distance of several hundred feet, and possess great potential value for the development of power. The construction of the Mormon Flat dam above referred to, twenty-eight miles below the reservoir, in part uses the wasting energies of the waters. It is proposed to construct the Horse Mesa dam seventeen miles below the reservoir for the purpose of developing power from the water that now goes to waste. This energy is a natural resource which now is lost.

It is the purpose and policy of the laws to encourage and facilitate the development of such resources. The location at which it is proposed to build this dam is highly favorable for power development, and must ultimately attract private enterprise unless the construction of the proposed works is undertaken by the association. It is obviously to the advantage of thé association, which has impounded the waters at great cost, and partly developed the power supplied by such waters, to complete such development, and to retain control of the waters at all points from the outlet at the reservoir to their application directly to the lands of the shareholders of the association. Much of the power thus far developed by the various power plants of the association has been applied directly to the needs of irrigation, and some has been sold to be used for other purposes, and the proceeds applied to lighten the burdens of assessments to meet the cost of original construction. It is proposed to make similar use of [532]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
227 P. 989, 26 Ariz. 525, 1924 Ariz. LEXIS 188, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bethune-v-salt-river-valley-water-users-assn-ariz-1924.