Center Creek Water & Irrigation Co. v. Thomas

57 P. 30, 19 Utah 360, 1899 Utah LEXIS 99
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedApril 28, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 57 P. 30 (Center Creek Water & Irrigation Co. v. Thomas) 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
Center Creek Water & Irrigation Co. v. Thomas, 57 P. 30, 19 Utah 360, 1899 Utah LEXIS 99 (Utah 1899).

Opinion

Bartoh, C. J.

The plaintiff is a corporation organized and existing by virtue of the laws of Utah, and is engaged in the business of managing, controlling, and distributing, among its stockholders owning land along the stream, the waters of Center Creek in Wasatch County. The defendant also owns land adjacent to the stream, and claims that more than twenty years ago his grantors and predecessors in interest diverted and appropriated sufficient of the water of the stream, during the high-water period, to irrigate about twenty acres, and that he and they each year since, during such period, used the same adversely to the plaintiff and its stockholders, to irrigate said land. The plaintiff brought this action to restrain the defendant from in any manner obstructing or interfering with the water of the stream. At the trial, the court entered a decree, which entitled the defendant to the ‘ ‘ use of sufficient of the waters of Center Creek from the first day of April down to the fifteenth day of June, in each and every year, to irrigate eighteen acres of land, and in addition thereto the use of all the waters” of a certain spring, the same being also in controversy herein. The court regulated the use of the water by the defendant, during such [362]*362period of time, by decreeing that he was entitled to a “stream of water flowing one hundred cubic feet per minute for forty-eight hours every twenty days, ’ ’ and to all the water of the spring. The balance of the water flowing in the stream during the irrigation season was awarded to the plaintiff, and each party was restrained from thenceforth interfering with the other in the use of his or its portion of the water.

The correctness of this decree is challenged by appeal, and the appellant appears to maintain that the material facts on which the decree was based were found on insufficient evidence.

Counsel for the respondent, at the outset, object to the consideration by us of any question based upon the insufficiency of the evidence, because, as they insist, the evidence is not set out in-its entirety in the bill of exceptions, although this is a cause in equity. This objection is not well taken. The bill recites that.it “contains all the evidence introduced at the trial of said cause,” and is settled, allowed, and certified to as correct by the trial judge. There appears to be no exception in the record as to the ruling or findings of the court, respecting the contents of the bill. While it is true that the evidence is given in a narrative form, still, from an examination of it, we are unable to say that any material proof has been omitted. Nor is any such omission pointed out by counsel. If, however, there was anything omitted from the bill of exceptions, which the respondent regarded as material, then his counsel ought to have objected on that ground, to the settling of the bill until the correction was made. Then if the judge, in disregard of the objection, had settled the bill, counsel should have taken an exception to the ruling, and thereupon instituted proceedings in this court, as provided in Sec, 3289, N. S., to have the [363]*363bill corrected and settled in accordance with the facts. The omission from the bill, however, of mere immaterial matter is not a canse of complaint, for it is the duty of the judge in settling a bill of exceptions 1 ‘ to strike out of it all redundant and useless matter, so that the exceptions may be presented as briefly as possible.” E. S., Sec. 3286.

Observing nothing in the, bill which convinces us that material matter has been omitted, it having been duly authenticated, containing the recital as to all the evidence, and the respondent having failed to take an exception to the ruling of the court in the settlement of the bill, and to pursue the remedy pointed out by statute in such eases, we can not refuse to consider the assignments of error in the light of the evidence presented in the bill.

In Whipple v. Preece, decided at the present term, where a somewhat similar question was presented, this-court said: A bill of exceptions made up by the judge, aided by counsel of the respective parties, under the solemn sanction of the signature of the judge, properly authenticated, becomes a record, which, upon being filed with the clerk of this court, in the absence of proper proceedings to show the contrary, must be held to import absolute verity.”

The recitals of such a bill can not be impeached in the appellate court by anything not contained in the-record itself. 2 Enc. of Pl. & Pr. 423-425; Whipple v. Preece, supra. McGrath v. Tallent, 7 Utah, 256; Vermillion v. Nelson, 87 Ind., 194.

There being no sufficient reason shown for this court to disregard the evidence contained in the bill of exceptions, it becomes necessary to determine whether the facts found and the decree are supported by such evidence.

Counsel for the appellant insist that neither the 10th, [364]*36411th, nor the 12th finding is so supported. The 10th reads: “ That more than twelve years ago, the defendant, his grantors and predecessors in interest appropriated of the then unappropriated waters of Center Creek, in addition to a certain spring hereinafter mentioned, sufficient thereof to irrigate eighteen acres of land from the first day of April down to the 15th day of June of each and every year, and that this period is the high-water season. ”

The 11th: “ That a stream of water flowing one hundred cubic feet per minute for forty-eight hours every twenty days during the said high-water season, to wit: From the first day of April down to the fifteenth day of June in each and every year, in addition to a certain spring hereinafter- described, is a quantity sufficient and necessary to properly and economically irrigate the defendant’s said land.”

The 12th: That the defendant, his grantors and predecessors in interest have used said water from Center Creek from the first day of April down to the fifteenth day of June in each and every year since the said water was first appropriated by them, openly, adversely, uninterruptedly, and peaceably, as against all the world and particularly as against the plaintiff corporation.”

The appellant insists that these findings are not justified by the testimony, and that the high-water season does not last until the fifteenth day of June of each year.

From the findings it appears that the water claimed by the defendant was appropriated more than twelve years ago, and they specify the quantity of water appropriated and necessary to properly irrigate the defendant’s land, and the period of time during which, in each irrigation season, he is entitled to use it. The evidence shows that the defendant purchased the land from D. K. Bunnell in 1892, and that Bunnell had purchased fifteen acres of it [365]*365rom W. JVI. Ryan in 1883. Ryan, among other things, estified, that since he sold to defendant he had seen the land irrigated by the owner during the high-water season, every year, and had seen crops produced; that he was acquainted with the water of Center Creek; that there was probably three times as much water in it in May and a part of June as in the summer; that low water usually begins from the fifth to the fifteenth of June; that high water has never been controlled or distributed; and that with a stream a foot wide and a foot deep, running a hundred cubic feet per minute, it will take from thirty to thirty-six hours to water the defendant’s fifteen acres of land.”

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Bluebook (online)
57 P. 30, 19 Utah 360, 1899 Utah LEXIS 99, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/center-creek-water-irrigation-co-v-thomas-utah-1899.