Bountiful City v. De Luca

292 P. 194, 77 Utah 107, 72 A.L.R. 657, 1930 Utah LEXIS 91
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 10, 1930
DocketNo. 4883.
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 292 P. 194 (Bountiful City v. De Luca) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bountiful City v. De Luca, 292 P. 194, 77 Utah 107, 72 A.L.R. 657, 1930 Utah LEXIS 91 (Utah 1930).

Opinions

STRAUP, J.

This action was brought by Bountiful City to restrain the defendants from keeping or grazing goats or other live stock within 300 feet on either side of a creek known as Stone creek, its tributaries and sources of supply, some of the waters of which are used by the city and its inhabitants for culinary and domestic purposes; and from permitting goats or other live stock to drink out of such creek of any of its tributaries or sources of supply and from in any manner contaminating or befouling any of such waters. The plaintiff was given judgment so restraining the defendants, from which they have prosecuted this appeal.

The case was tried to the court without a jury. The material findings are assailed as not being supported by sufficient evidence, that the conclusions are not justified either by the findings or by the evidence, and that the judgment as rendered, in effect, amounts to a taking of property, or a deprivation of the use and enjoyment of it for any and all purposes for which it may be used, without compensation and without due process of law and in violation of both the federal and state Constitutions. The judgment is justified by the city under the claim of police powers conferred upon it by the Legislature to prevent a pollution or contamination of waters used for culinary and domestic purposes and to abate and prevent nuisances.

The defendants own about 560 acres of grazing lands in section 21, etc., in Davis county and located below the mouth *110 of a canyon and along the foothills of mountains east of Bountiful City. The western boundary of the lands is near the eastern boundary of the corporate limits of the city. Stone Creek, a natural stream of water, has its source in the mountains about five miles east of the city and flows down the canyon in a westerly direction through the entire width or length of the lands of the defendants and continues in a northwesterly direction north of the city. The distance the stream runs through the defendants’ lands is about a mile. The stream is from 4 feet to a rod wide. The eastern portion of the defendants’ lands is somewhat rough and rather steep. The western portion of it is more level with gulches running through it. The land is also rather steep on the south side of the creek, but not so steep and more level on the north side. Most of the lands from the north and south drain towards the creek which runs through the lands of the defendants east and west. All of the lands are covered with grass, brush, and some trees. They are suitable only for grazing purposes and not capable of being used for any other purpose. The best part of the lands lie near the creek which flows through them and better feed is found there than higher up the hill or mountain side.

About two miles sourth of Stone creek is Barton creek which also has its source in the mountains and flows westerly towards and in the vicinity of the city, the waters of which" are also used by it for culinary purposes. The mountain ridges between Barton and Stone creeks make a sort of watershed from which waters from rainfalls and melting snows drain toward Barton creek on the south and towards Stone creek on the north. The ridges north of Stone Creek and of the defendants’ lands also make a sort of watershed from which waters from rainfalls and melting snows drain towards Stone creek. The lands owned by the defendants and lands adjoining and adjacent to the east, the south, and to the north thereof, for more than forty years, have been used for grazing purposes and are not suitable for or adaptable to any other use. More or *111 less dung from animals grazing on the defendants’ lands and on the lands adjoining and adjacent thereto, from freshets, heavy rainfalls, and melting snows, drains towards Stone creek and washes into it. The defendants acquired their lands in 1918 from the Deseret Live Stock Company, who, and its predecessors, for many years used the lands and lands adjoining and adjacent thereto for grazing sheep and some cattle. The defendants, from the time they acquired their lands, and until the commencement of this action, used them for grazing from three to five hundred head of goats and were engaged in selling goat milk and manufacturing cheese and other products from goat milk. They built on their lands substantial dwelling houses where they with their families resided, and constructed other buildings and improvements thereon used in connection with the business carried on by them, to the value of $10,000' or more. All of the waters of Stone creek had been appropriated by the Stone Creek Irrigation Company and its predecessors for many years prior to the defendants acquiring their lands. The city owns one-fourth of the capital stock of the irrigation company and is entitled to one-fourth of the waters of the creek which it uses for culinary purposes for its inhabitants.

The defendants, as appropriators, do not claim any right or interest in or to the waters of the creek. They, however, as owners of lands abutting the creek, and as riparian owners, claim acquired rights to water their goats from the creek, and also claim such right by prescription and adverse usage. It is shown that the city by open ditches used water from the creek for culinary and domestic purposes for many years prior to the defendants acquiring their lands. Later, the city constructed an intake on the defendants’ lands and piped water therefrom to its reservoir, but it is not shown whether the intake was constructed before or after the defendants acquired their lands. Let it be assumed it was constructed before. It is constructed near the western boundary of the defendants’ lands. It *112 consists of an open cement box, with a wooden headgate which may be raised and lowered to regulate the flow of the water. From the headgate, the city, by means of a pipe line, carries its water for a distance of but half a mile to a reservoir south and west of the creek where the water enters the distributing system of the city. About five years prior to the trial of this action, which was in December, 1927, a bridge about 200 feet below the intake was constructed across the creek by means of which the defendants’ goats crossed from one side of the creek to the other. For a few years after the defendants acquired their lands, and before the bridge was constructed, the goats drank from and crossed the creek indiscriminately above as well as below the intake. But after about the year 1921 or 1922 and until about 1925, the goats drank from and crossed the creek below the intake. In some years, and in seasons when the waters in the creek were low, the city, at the intake, took all of the water from the creek so that no water coursed down the creek below the intake. On such occasions the defendants raised the headgate at the intake and let sufficient water down to water the goats below the intake. In 1925 the watermaster and agents and officers of the city forbade the defendants so letting water down, and accused them of stealing water. The defendants thereupon ceased to let water down, and after that, when no water flowed below the intake, the goats watered and drank from and crossed the creek indiscriminately above the intake.

Under the laws of this state (Comp. Laws Utah 1917, § 570x15, as amended by Laws Utah 1923, c.

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Bluebook (online)
292 P. 194, 77 Utah 107, 72 A.L.R. 657, 1930 Utah LEXIS 91, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bountiful-city-v-de-luca-utah-1930.