Holyoke Water Power Co. v. American Writing Paper Co.

90 F.2d 509, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 3869
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedJune 1, 1937
DocketNo. 3220
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 90 F.2d 509 (Holyoke Water Power Co. v. American Writing Paper Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Holyoke Water Power Co. v. American Writing Paper Co., 90 F.2d 509, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 3869 (5th Cir. 1937).

Opinion

MORTON, Circuit Judge.

This is a bill to enjoin the unpermitted use of water by the defendant. The case was referred to a master who reported in favor of the defendant, stating the facts on which he based his decisive findings. In the District Court his report was confirmed and a decree was entered dismissing the bill. The plaintiff has appealed.

The plaintiff owns a tract of land on which is a long-established water power development on the Connecticut river near Holyoke, Mass. It was built about 1850 and consists of a dam and three sets of canals, an upper level and a lower level. On these canals mill sites were sold on perpetual leases. See Holyoke Water Power Co. v. American Writing Paper Co., Inc., 57 S.Ct. 485, 81 L.Ed. -, decided March 1, 1937. Many of these leases carried the right to a “mill powfer,” which was described as a stated amount of water under a stated head, or the equivalent thereof. The mill sites on the upper canal discharged the water, after using it, into the lower canal, those on the lower canal into the river.

The defendant is the owner, through mesne conveyances, of a number of these mill sites and water powers, on which it has a paper manufacturing plant. It uses and has to use large amounts of processing water in manufacturing paper. The question is whether it has the right to do so. The defendant claims this right on three grounds: (1) That it was impliedly granted in the conveyances of mill sites and water powers to its predecessors in title, or that the power water might be so used; (2) that it has a prescriptive right to such use of the water; (3) that the plaintiff’s bill is barred by laches and estoppel.

As to the implied grant, the master found that there was an implied grant, in connection with the original conveyances, of the right to use such water for processing and incidental purposes as the business conducted on each mill site might reasonably require. He has stated the facts on which he made this finding; and the plaintiff contends that they do not warrant it. The grants on which the defendant relies were made at various dates from 1855 to 1892. None of them was made to the defendant, which only recently succeeded to the prop[511]*511erty. They were originally made to various persons and became consolidated in one ownership in the plaintiff or its immediate predecessor. The water company’s grants were made on printed forms and sold or leased “a parcel of land to be described in the deed with one or more mill powers of the quantity of water described below.” The mill powers were described as being “the right during the sixteen hours in a day, to draw from the nearest canal or water course of the grantor's, and through the land to be granted, 38 cubic feet of water per second at the upper fall, when the head and fall there is 20 feet. — or, a quantity inversely proportionate to the height at the other falls.” There are provisions adjusting the amount of water to different heights. Nothing whatever was said about processing water or incidental water. The indentures further provided that “the grantees are not to use more water than granted, nor waste it, nor permit it to be wasted for want of repairs, or through the deficiency of their works or otherwise; and if so wasted, or if more be used than is granted (italics supplied), the grantors may stop the water from entering the flues by closing the gates across them, or by any other method, until such waste of excessive use be sufficiently guarded against; and may also at the same time maintain their action at law for damages.”

The master found that:

“The grants of mill sites contemplated the erection of mills thereon. For whatever form of manufacturing the mill so erected was to be used the requirement of a certain amount, of water for non-power purposes would naturally be foreseen. (The finding contained in the foregoing sentence is not based upon any evidence introduced in the case, but solely upon what I regard as a matter of common knowledge.) In the case of a paper mill substantially more would be required than in most other forms of manufacture. These facts, and approximately the amount of non-power water that might reasonably be expected to be required by a paper mill in connection with the use of the mill powers granted, must have been known to the complainant and its predecessor at the time of the grants. Many of the grants of the mill sites were to paper companies in name. Thus the earliest grant of those here in question, made in 1855, was to the Parsons Paper Company; and the latest, in 1892, was to the Riverside Paper Company. As to some of the grants it would appear that the mill site was not used, or at any rate not used for paper manufacture, until a date considerably later than the grant; and as to these there is no evidence to show that the complainant had knowledge that the site was in fact going to be used for paper manufacture. The complainant, however, did have knowledge that the site would probably be used for some form of manufacture which would require some water for non-power purposes, and that it well might be used for paper manufacture, that being from the earliest times one of the principal, if not the principal industry carried on on the canals in Holyoke.

“That the respondent’s predecessors in title must have understood at the time of the grants that they were entitled to draw from their flumes located on their mill sites such amount of water as might reasonably be required for manufacturing purposes in connection with the use of the mill powers, including paper manufacture, is, I think, clear, and I so find. * * *

“I find that the complainant also, and its predecessor, at the time of the grants of mill powers here in question intended that the grantees should in connection with the use of the mill powers granted have the right to take water from their flumes for manufacturing purposes. This finding is based upon the following considerations. The general situation above referred to was known to the complainant as well as to the grantees. And as before stated, although the use was at all times open and known to the complainant, there is no evidence to show that the complainant ever made any objection whatever, and I find that, prior to the bringing of this suit, the complainant never did anything to stop the use, or rendered any bills for or made any claims for compensation for the water so used. If the complainant had felt that the use was not rightful, it would certainly, I think, have required written evidence that the use was merely permissive, for as appears from the well agreements above referred to, a matter of far less importance to the complainant, it has been meticulous in protecting itself against the acquisition of rights by prescription. * * *

“The complainant argues that it ought not to be assumed that the complainant intended to give or that the grantees should have expected to get without compensation the substantial amounts of non-power water required by a paper mill. The answer to this is that at the time of the grants [512]*512there was an abundance of river water available for all purposes. It was not until about 1881 that the complainant even attempted to make any measurement for the purpose of checking on the amount used for power purposes. It was not until 1911 that the complainant attempted to make the sale of process water a source of revenue.

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90 F.2d 509, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 3869, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holyoke-water-power-co-v-american-writing-paper-co-ca5-1937.