Blaine County Canal Co. v. Faris

45 P.2d 796, 55 Idaho 632, 1935 Ida. LEXIS 102
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedMay 31, 1935
DocketNo. 6239.
StatusPublished

This text of 45 P.2d 796 (Blaine County Canal Co. v. Faris) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blaine County Canal Co. v. Faris, 45 P.2d 796, 55 Idaho 632, 1935 Ida. LEXIS 102 (Idaho 1935).

Opinion

GIVENS, C. J.

Appellants sought unsuccessfully in the district court by mandamus to compel the respondent water-master to apportion certain waters of Dry Creek between appellant Canal Co. and Perry Basinger, Emily Basinger, O. P. Williams, Robert Williams, Harold Williams, Stanley Williams and John Williams, heirs at law of A. H. Williams, deceased, Estate of J. IT. Mudd and Otto Hoebel, administrator of the Estate of J. H. Mudd, in accordance with appellants’ interpretation of a contract between appellants and the above original appropriators from Dry Creek, and various decisions and opinions heretofore rendered with regard to waters of Little Lost River, of which Dry Creek is a high-water tributary, that appellants should, superior to such appropriators, receive 275 inches or 5.5 feet when there was that amount of water flowing in Dry Creek at the intake of its pipe-line or any less amount thereof.

As appears from the previous decisions touching upon this matter (Basinger et al. v. Taylor, 30 Ida. 289, 164 Pac. 522; Basinger et al. v. Taylor, 36 Ida. 591, 211 Pac. 1085; Mays v. District Court, 40 Ida. 798, 237 Pac. 700; Blaine County Investment Co. v. Mays, 49 Ida. 766, 291 Pac. 1055; *634 Blaine County Investment Co. v. Mays, 52 Ida. 381, 15 Pac. (2d) 734), and the record in this case,-appellant company claims it was awarded the 5.5 feet as salvaged or saved water, secured by the construction of a pipe-line and ditch, and which 5.5 feet was declared in Basinger et al. v. Taylor, (36 Ida. 591) supra, to have been water retrieved from what would otherwise have been lost by seepage and percolation, in flowing down the natural channel of Dry Creek and the old Farmers Ditch, the original diversion ditch used by the other appropriators mentioned herein.

The decision in Basinger et al. v. Taylor, (30 Ida. 289) supra, did not pass upon or consider the relative rights of appellants and the individual appropriators herein, the controversy there being between these parties as joint appellants and the water-master, predecessor to respondent Hansen herein and the Taylors. The complaint stating:

“That there is no conflict in the rights of the plaintiffs herein and each of them have a common right and interest in having their rights and interests determined and settled as herein alleged.”

By stipulation the decrees in Kyle v. Jones, July 6, 1907, and March 20, 1920, are considered as part of the record herein, which later is the decree reviewed in Basinger et al. v. Taylor, (36 Ida. 591) supra. The portions of that decree material herein were paragraphs III and V, in substance as follows: Blaine County Irrigation Co. was adjudged 22.05 second-feet conserved by its pipe-line, subject only to the prior rights of the Taylors, and a later right of 45 second-feet not involved herein, and that when the flow of Dry Creek was insufficient to be of benefit to the Taylors after the 22 second-feet of the individual users herein mentioned had been supplied, then the company could turn all the water down the pipe-line.

This court in Basinger et al. v. Taylor, (36 Ida. 591) supra, ordered these provisions modified as there set' forth.

*635 The decree of July 6, 1907, gave Basinger et al. all their respective rights not disputed as to initial amounts with no date of priority.

Pursuant to the decision in Basinger et al. v. Taylor, (36 Ida. 591) supra, the trial court, February 26, 1923, entered its amended decree as follows:

“I.

“That the plaintiff Blaine County Irrigation Company, Limited, is entitled to and hereby is decreed a prior right to the waters of Dry Creek in Custer County, Idaho, situate, to the extent of 5.5 cubic feet per second of time thereof, the same being the water by it conserved and saved by the construction of its pipe line and irrigation works, said water to be diverted through its pipe line at a point N. 81 degrees W. 14250 feet from the Northwest corner of Section 19, Township 10 North, Range 26 Bast B. M.; their right to which such water is adjudged to be prior in point of time and right to any other right in and to the water of said stream.

“II.

“That there be and hereby is decreed to the plaintiffs Perry Basinger, C. M. Mulkey, O. P. Williams, A. H. Wiiüsms, J. N. Wilde, and W. H. Bartell, twenty-two cubic feet per second of time of the waters of said Dry Creek, with priority as of April 1, 1891, to be by them diverted through said pipe line at .said point of diversion; which such waters are decreed ratably to the lands of said several plaintiffs as follows”:

“IV.

“That there is hereby adjudged and decreed to the plaintiff Blaine County Irrigation Company, Limited, Sixty-one (61) cubic feet per second of time of the waters of said creek, to be diverted at its said point of diversion at the intake of said pipe line, subject, only, to its said prior right of 5.5 cubic feet, to the said prior right of said individual *636 plaintiffs to 22 cubic feet, and the said prior right of intervenors, Samantha J. Taylor and J. B. Taylor to said 9.77 cubic feet; said 61 cubic feet, together with said 5.5 cubic feet, to be appurtenant to and used upon the following described lands, to-wit: . ”

The pipe-line contract referred to in the course of this litigation and named in the stipulation herein as Exhibit “G” does not, as indicated in Blaine County Investment Co. v. Mays, (49 Ida. 766) supra, aid in the solution of the specific problem we are here confronted with.

An examination of the files in Blaine County Investment Co. v. Mays, case No. 5080, culminating in the appeal therein in Blaine County Investment Co. v. Mays, (49 Ida. 766, 291 Pac. 1055) supra, discloses this pertinent allegation in appellants’ complaint therein:

‘ ‘ TENTH: That Dry Creek is a natural stream, having its source in said Custer County, and when not diverted or lost by percolation, as hereinafter alleged, flows in a generally northeasterly direction to and into said Little Lost River, but because of the porous nature of the bed of said stream and numerous sinks which occur along the course thereof, both above and below the headgate of what is commonly known as the Farmers’ Ditch, hereinafter mentioned, all of the water of said stream, except during the high-water seasons, which usually occur during the months of June and July of each year, percolates or, if not diverted from the channel thereof, would percolate into the gravel underlying the same, and, when not diverted as hereinafter alleged, is or would be entirely lost in respect to the application thereof to any useful or beneficial purpose whatsoever, except as to a small portion thereof during such high-water season; that, during or prior to the year 1891, ihe defendants, ....

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Related

Blaine County Investment Co. v. Mays
15 P.2d 734 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1932)
Blaine County Investment Co. v. Mays
291 P. 1055 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1930)
Basinger v. Taylor
164 P. 522 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1917)
Basinger v. Taylor
211 P. 1085 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1922)

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Bluebook (online)
45 P.2d 796, 55 Idaho 632, 1935 Ida. LEXIS 102, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blaine-county-canal-co-v-faris-idaho-1935.