Carlsbad Mutual Water Co. v. San Luis Rey Development Co.

178 P.2d 844, 78 Cal. App. 2d 900, 1947 Cal. App. LEXIS 1549
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 4, 1947
DocketCiv. No. 3643
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 178 P.2d 844 (Carlsbad Mutual Water Co. v. San Luis Rey Development Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carlsbad Mutual Water Co. v. San Luis Rey Development Co., 178 P.2d 844, 78 Cal. App. 2d 900, 1947 Cal. App. LEXIS 1549 (Cal. Ct. App. 1947).

Opinion

GRIFFIN, J.

This action was commenced by plaintiff and appellant Carlsbad Mutual Water Company, a corporation, against defendants and respondents San Luis Rey Development Company, a corporation, et al., to enjoin it and other named defendants from diverting waters of the San Luis Rey River.

Plaintiff company was organized for the sole purpose of supplying water for domestic, irrigation and other uses, to the holders of its capital stock. It is also the sole source of supply of water for the community of Carlsbad. It has, since 1914, secured, substantially, its entire water supply from the surface and subterranean waters of the San Luis Rey River at a point only a few miles east of its outlet into the Pacific Ocean. Plaintiff’s complaint alleges that it owns 15 acres of land riparian to the San Luis Rey River; that in 1913 and 1914, the South Coast Land Company, plaintiff’s predecessor in interest, commenced and completed the drilling and construction of wells and pumping plants on said land for the purpose of extracting and developing water from said river and the diversion thereof to land in and about the town of Carlsbad; that at that time the South Coast Land Company owned approximately 1,100 acres of land in the Mission Basin, riparian to the river, and also owned certain rights, duly conveyed to it by other riparian owners, to develop and convert any part of said water for use in places within and without that watershed; that on March 14, 1915, that company deeded to plaintiff the right to enter upon certain described lands embraced within the 1,100 acres and to pump water to the extent of 200 miner’s inches to other lands.

The answer admits most of these allegations but denies the rest of them by reason of lack of information.

At the trial it was stipulated between the parties that “plaintiff company had sufficient interest to maintain this action.” Plaintiff is not only an appropriator but also an [904]*904overlying landowner, as well as a riparian owner. We will therefore assume that this dispute involves rights existing between a lower and upper riparian landowner, as well as a determination of rights between an appropriator and an upper riparian landowner.

In Peabody v. City of Vallejo, 2 Cal.2d 351 [40 P.2d 486], .it was said, quoting from the syllabus, that “In addition to the rule of reasonableness of use as previously applied, the constitutional amendment whereby section 3 was added to Article XIV has enjoined the doctrine of reasonable use as between a riparian owner and an appropriator, the limitations and prohibitions of said section, and the rule of reasonable use, now applies to every water right and every method of diversion; and its plain and positive mandates, which admit of no exception, apply to the use of all water, under whatever right the use may be enjoyed.” (See, also, Jones v. Pleasant Valley Canal Co., 44 Cal.App.2d 798, 807 [113 P.2d 289]; and Larsen v. Apollonio, 5 Cal.2d 440 [55 P.2d 196].)

On October 7, 1938, the Division of Water Resources made an order granting plaintiff the right to divert, from the river, annually, 750 acre feet of water.

Plaintiff claims that defendants, who own an aggregate of approximately 1,700 acres of land located about 10 miles above plaintiff’s point of diversion, are preparing to and intend to, pump and divert water from said river and use it on their lands for irrigation and other purposes under a claim of riparian right. In the ownership of their respective parcels of land defendants are successors in interest of William E. Gird. On January 24, 1906, Gird executed a deed to one Charles Forman, which by its terms conveyed “all riparian rights to the waters of the San Luis Rey River that may belong to or be appurtenant to” certain described lands, which included all of the land owned by all of the defendants and other land adjacent thereto. Following the description of the land, said deed contains the following clauses: “Together with the right to divert, by either conduits, canals, pumping plants or other devices, water from the San Luis Rey River at points above the lands of the party of the first part hereinabove described. Together with the right to impound waters of the San Luis Rey River by the construction of a dam at a point in or above Section 4, Township 11 South, Range 2 East, S. B. B. & M., with the right to conduct said waters so impounded or diverted to such lands as party of the [905]*905second part may desire. . . . But this conveyance is made subject to the right of the party of the first part, and the right is hereby expressly reserved to develop, pump and extract waters from the lands hereinabove described for the use of irrigation, domestic and other purposes upon the lands hereinabove described. The grantee hereby expressly waives any and all claims for liability on the part of the grantor for damages to the pipe lines or canals of grantee crossing said property growing out of the use of his property by said grantor.”

The Henshaw Dam was erected 17 miles upstream from defendants’ property by the San Diego County Water Company, successor in interest to Charles Forman. It now impounds all the surface and subterranean flow of the river back of said dam which would have otherwise flowed down said river to the lands of defendants.

Subsequent to the execution of that deed, defendant San Luis Rey Development Company acquired the 1,700 acres aforementioned. On February 15, 1944, the defendant development company executed deeds conveying to certain other defendants portions of the 1,700 acres. There was conveyed with each of the several deeds one share of stock in the San Luis Rey Heights Mutual Water Company for each one acre of land acquired.

Defendants admit in their pleadings that they intend to pump, extract and divert from said river, and use on their respective lands, reasonable quantities of water for domestic and irrigation purposes.

Plaintiff alleges in its complaint and claims that defendants, unless restrained, will pump, extract and divert from said river large quantities of water, and will deprive plaintiff and other riparian owners below of water which they are rightfully entitled to use and appropriate for the purposes heretofore described.

Plaintiff also claims (based upon Bulletin 48a of the Division of Water Resources in evidence) that if defendants are permitted to take water from the river to which they are not entitled the inevitable result will be that, sooner or later, the flow into the Mission Basin from which plaintiff’s water supply is derived, will be insufficient to prevent the intrusion of salt water from the ocean and that that basin will be destroyed as a source of water for any purpose.

[906]*906After issue was thus joined, counsel for the respective parties signed a written stipulation agreeing that they all desired to conserve time and expense in the trial of the action, and agreed that the “legal effect of the two deeds, . . . Exhibits ‘A’ and ‘B,’ be first determined by the court; . . . That the issues raised by paragraphs XII and XVIT (the deed from Gird to Forman and the deed, dated February 19, 1944, from the Development Company to San Luis Rey Heights Mutual Water Company, of all water and water rights appurtenant to the described land) ...

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Bluebook (online)
178 P.2d 844, 78 Cal. App. 2d 900, 1947 Cal. App. LEXIS 1549, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carlsbad-mutual-water-co-v-san-luis-rey-development-co-calctapp-1947.