Fuss v. Franks

610 P.2d 17, 1980 Wyo. LEXIS 260
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedApril 25, 1980
Docket5209
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 610 P.2d 17 (Fuss v. Franks) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fuss v. Franks, 610 P.2d 17, 1980 Wyo. LEXIS 260 (Wyo. 1980).

Opinions

ROSE, Justice.

This ease involves a dispute among landowners over the right to seepage or waste water first used upon the lands of the Bremers and appellants, Fusses and Baum-gartner, and thereafter conveyed to other non-adjoining lands leased and farmed by Fusses. Appellee, Franks, interrupted this use by diverting the escaped water to his own property — thus the controversy.

The case was disposed of upon the court’s judgment of dismissal. We will affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

[19]*19John and Martha Fuss, husband and wife, and Myrtrice Baumgartner, appellants herein, together with Dale and Ralph Bremer, own and farm adjacent tracts of land in the Goshen County Irrigation District (hereafter G.I.D.). The land irrigates from south to north — that is, the water flows northerly from the three properties of Fusses, Baum-gartner and Bremers toward the Franks land.

A secondary highway runs north and south to the east of these four tracts and borders the Baumgartner and Franks properties. Along the west side of the highway in the right-of-way is a borrow pit maintained by the State Highway Department. A ditch-rider road built by the G.I.D. intersects the highway, running east and west. This road separates the Franks land from the land owned and farmed by the appellants and the Bremers. A borrow pit originally ran alongside the ditch-rider road, but it has been converted into a waste-water-eollection ditch. Waste water from the Bremer, Baumgartner and Fuss lands collects in this ditch and is carried into the highway borrow pit.

In addition to the aforementioned tract of land owned by the Fusses in Section 5, they also maintain farming operations to the north and east across the highway on state-lease land in Section 4.

Water for this entire area was acquired by the G.I.D. under various permits and the water rights within the District were then adjudicated in the names of individual landowners for individual 40-acre tracts. The water in contest here is seepage from water appropriated to tracts belonging to Brem-ers, Fusses and Baumgartner.

The present dispute arises out of the irrigation practices of the parties involved. The Fuss, Bremer and Baumgartner lands located in Section 5 have historically received water directly from the G.I.D. Canal, which bisects the three ownerships in that section. Excess water from these lands collects in the waste-water ditch which separates the Fusses, Bremers and Baumgartner from Franks in Section 5. The collected water flows easterly through this ditch into the highway borrow pit where it travels north some distance before it again flows east under the highway via an underground pipe constructed by the G.I.D. Appellants-Fusses have, for many years, irrigated their Section 4 state-lease land lying east of the highway with this escaped waste water which has crossed under the highway, as above described. William Franks has two pipes under the ditch-rider road from which he has collected some waste water for the irrigation of his property.

In 1977, Franks applied to the State Engineer’s office for a permit for a supplemental supply of water, the source being the highway borrow pit. The application would allow Franks to construct a dam in the borrow pit in order that he might collect additional water for irrigation. The permit was approved by the State Engineer in July 1979.

Appellants brought the present action to prevent appellee from collecting this water and to stop further interference with the use of waste water on the appellants-Fusses’ Section 4 leased land. An amended complaint was filed and was dismissed by order of the court on September 6, 1979.

We will address these following issues, which we find to be dispositive of all material questions raised by the appellants:

1. Whether the trial court erred when, by its order of dismissal, it held that the water from the highway borrow pit was lawfully appropriated by Franks under a valid permit;

2. Estoppel;
3. Adverse use; and
4. Injunction.

Point 1: Was the water from the highway borrow pit lawfully appropriated by Franks?

Whether or not Franks’ appropriation was lawful is resolved by answering whether or not the State Engineer had authority to approve the Franks permit in July of 1979.

In this case, there was testimony that the seepage water in contest here would, if [20]*20uninterrupted, flow into a natural stream. This is a qualifying requirement for appropriation. Binning v. Miller, 55 Wyo. 451, 102 P.2d 54 (1940).

In Binning we said:

“. . . And so it is held in a number of cases that seepage water which, if not intercepted, would naturally reach the stream, is just as much a part of the stream as the waters of any tributaries and must be permitted to return thereto, if the owner cannot make beneficial use thereof. Rock Creek Ditch Co. v. Miller, 93 Mont. 248, 17 P.2d 1074, and note thereto in 89 A.L.R. 218-227; 67 C.J. 1006, 1015. That would seem to be the more reasonable rule in irrigating states. ...” 102 P.2d at 61.

This concept was reaffirmed in Bower v. Big Horn Canal Association, 77 Wyo. 80, 307 P.2d 593 (1957).

The permit having been issued to Franks, this constituted prima facie evidence of his right to take the water. Hunziker v. Knowlton, 78 Wyo. 241, 322 P.2d 141 (1958). This being so, it fell to appellants to allege facts sufficient to show that they had a right to the water superior to that of Franks, the permittee. Binning, supra.

Appellants say in their brief:

“. . . The appropriator who captures upon his land waters not fully used for irrigation, sometimes referred to as waste water, may recapture the water for beneficial use upon his premises for which the water had been appropriated. . ” (Emphasis supplied.)

That is a correct statement of law. It cannot, however, inure to the favor of appellants under the facts of this case.

We commented upon Binning, supra, where the facts were uniquely similar to those to be found here, when, in Bower, supra, we said:

“. . The real question in the case [Binning] was whether the prior appropriation of what was termed in the original application as ‘waste and seepage water’ was good as against the owner of the land from which said water came. The court held that the seepage water which formed a natural stream might be appropriated, subject to the right of the land owner to use the water for beneficial purposes upon the land for which the water forming the seepage was originally appropriated.” (Emphasis and bracketed matter supplied.) 307 P.2d at 600.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Montana v. Wyoming
563 U.S. 368 (Supreme Court, 2011)
Iberlin v. TCI Cablevision of Wyoming, Inc.
855 P.2d 716 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1993)
McKennan v. Newman
843 P.2d 602 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1992)
Prazma v. Kaehne
768 P.2d 586 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1989)
Fuss v. Franks
610 P.2d 17 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1980)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
610 P.2d 17, 1980 Wyo. LEXIS 260, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fuss-v-franks-wyo-1980.