Gasser v. Garden Water Co.

346 P.2d 592, 81 Idaho 421, 1959 Ida. LEXIS 235
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 17, 1959
DocketNo. 8784
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 346 P.2d 592 (Gasser v. Garden Water Co.) 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
Gasser v. Garden Water Co., 346 P.2d 592, 81 Idaho 421, 1959 Ida. LEXIS 235 (Idaho 1959).

Opinion

PORTER, Chief Justice.

In the year 1897 a number of land owners in Idaho acquired a permit from the State of Wyoming to divert water from Darby Creek in Wyoming for use for irrigation and milling purposes upon certain lands in Idaho. These lands are situated in what is now Teton County. The permit was issued in the name of Wyoming and Darby Bench Canal Company. In 1910 title to this water was by shit quieted in the canal company. Subsequently, in order to provide a better system of distribution to its stockholders, the respondent was organized and acquired all the rights of the Wyoming and Darby Bench Canal Company.

The respondent is a mutual irrigation company organized to distribute water to its shareholders in proportion to the number of shares of stock the shareholder owns in the company. It operates and maintains three main canals in its distribution system. The canal known as the North Hill Canal is the one especially involved in this suit. The appellant has been a stockholder in the respondent for many years. He receives his irrigation water through the North Hill Canal.

Prior to 1949, respondent owned no water dedicated to domestic use. Its contractual duty to deliver irrigation water to its shareholders ended with the irrigation season and did not require the respondent to deliver water during the winter months. However, the Company had for many years permitted a limited amount of water to flow in its canals including the North Hill Canal during the winter from which [424]*424Row appellant and others used domestic water. Respondent had an increasing amount of trouble from this winter flow of water in its canals by reason of the water freezing and then overflowing the banks of the canals and flooding roads, fields and buildings.

In 1949 respondent secured an amendment to its permit allocating six-tenths of a cubic foot of water to domestic purposes. It then caused the Garden Water Association, Inc., commonly known as the Pipeline Company, to be organized for the. delivery of water to its shareholders fpr. domestic purposes and supplied the yrater so used. Membership in the Pipeline Company was open to each shareholder in respondent upon payment of his proportionate share of the expense.

Some of the stockholders in respondent had dug wells in an effort to secure a domestic water supply. Others became members of the Pipeline Company. The appellant did neither, but insisted upon the water running in the canals in the wintertime for his domestic use. The delivery of water through the canals during the winter months caused increasing friction in the area. Respondent was threatened with litigation by the County Commissioners of Teton County for permitting its canals to overflow and flood surrounding areas.

Thé running of water through its canals in the wintertime continued to create a problem for the Company. At a regular meeting of its stockholders held March 8, 1955, the stockholders voted "that the water be turned out of the canals Dec. 15 each year, unless some person makes a application for water and agrees in writing to take care of same and be responsible for any damage caused by water flooding in road or field, or damage to company gates or canals.” Thereafter, water was turned out of the canals during the winter months. However, appellant would raise the Company gates so that large and uncontrolled amounts of water would be released to run down the North Hill Canal.

At a special meeting of the Company stockholders held November 3, 1958, the following resolution was adopted:

“Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved, by the stockholders of the corporation that the resolution adopted by the stockholders March 8, 1955, in connection with limiting the use of winter water be modified in the following particulars:- That the water be turned out of the company’s canal system after- the irrigation season at such time each year as shall be fixed by the Board of Directors.”

In January, 1958, the control devices and headgates of the Company were damaged by some person so that it could no longer regulate the water in the canals. The directors and officers of the Company closed the headgates to prevent flooding [425]*425and resulting damage and filled in the first sixty feet of the North Hill Canal so that water could not be turned into such canal. No stockholder on the North Hill Canal had requested any winter water other than appellant. Appellant at all times refused to comply with the regulation requiring any stockholder desiring the use of the system for winter water to file application in writing agreeing to be responsible for any damage the water might occasion.

Appellant filed this action against respondent praying “That a permanent order and judgment be issued, requiring the defendant to deliver sufficient water to the plaintiff’s premises wherewith to supply him with culinary and domestic water.” Respondent filed answer to the complaint. The cause was tried to the court sitting without a jury and resulted in Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law by the court favorable to respondent. Judgment was entered accordingly for respondent. From such judgment, appellant prosecutes this appeal.

We agree with appellant that the right to litigate the question of the right to a flow of water for domestic use during the non-irrigation season has been recognized by our Court. See Arkoosh v. Big Wood Canal Co., 48 Idaho 383, 283 P. 522.

Appellant does not contend in his brief that by reason of the relationship between appellant stockholder and respondent •mutual irrigation company, there was any contractual duty upon respondent to permit the flow of water in its canals during the non-irrigation season in order that appellant might have a domestic water supply. Appellant contends that a right to use his water supply for domestic purposes arose under the provisions of Article XV, Section 4, of the Idaho Constitution, upon the application of such water to the irrigation of his lands. Appellant takes the further position that because the Company had permitted water to flow in its canals during the winter months and that appellant had used such water for domestic purposes for more than thirty-years, he had gained a right by adverse possession to have the Company continue to flow water in its canals during the winter months for his use and benefit. His principal assignments of error are to the effect that the judgment is contrary to such contentions.

The respondent sets up several affirmative defenses. It alleges that under Wyoming law the right to the use of water cannot be gained by adverse possession. -That Article XV, Section 4, of the Idaho Constitution refers to sale and rental of water and is not governing in the case of water distributed by a mutual irrigation' company. That .a mutual irrigation company may adopt -reasonable rules and regulations for the internal operation of its affairs, and that the regulation adopted by [426]*426the stockholders of respondent requiring indemnity against damages by reason of flooding is a reasonable regulation.

However, we do not deem it necessary to discuss and determine all these contentions under our view of the controlling issue in this case.

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

Related

Eagle Creek Irrigation Co. v. A.C. & C.E. Invs., Inc.
447 P.3d 915 (Idaho Supreme Court, 2019)
Simpson's Colony Reclamation Canal Co. v. Hutzler
595 P.2d 383 (Nevada Supreme Court, 1979)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
346 P.2d 592, 81 Idaho 421, 1959 Ida. LEXIS 235, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gasser-v-garden-water-co-idaho-1959.