In re Waters of Umatilla River

168 P. 922, 88 Or. 376, 1917 Ore. LEXIS 1
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 27, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 168 P. 922 (In re Waters of Umatilla River) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Waters of Umatilla River, 168 P. 922, 88 Or. 376, 1917 Ore. LEXIS 1 (Or. 1917).

Opinions

BüRNETT, J.

1. The Western Company traces all its claims to operations under the Act of February 18, 1891, codified in Chapter 1 of Title XLIII, L. O. L., which provided that a corporation desiring to divert water for irrigation purposes should post in a conspicuous place at the point of diversion a notice in writing containing a statement of the name of the ditch, canal, or flume, and of the owner thereof, the point at which its headgate was proposed to be constructed, a general description of the course of the conduit, the size thereof in width and depth, and the number and amount of water by miner’s measurement to be appropriated, together with the number of reservoirs, if any: Section 6528, L. O. L. It was also required that the appropriator should file a map showing the general route of its ditch, canal, or flume. The manifest intention of the law was to demand a definite limitation of the scheme of the concern desiring to appropriate water so that others contemplating a like enterprise might be advised of how much of the stream was available for further projects. As to the appropriation of water in the arid and semi-arid portions of the United States the rule well supported by court decisions and crystallized into statutory form by the Act of February 27, 1913, Chapter 279, is that “beneficial use shall be the basis, the measure, and the limit of all rights to the use of water ’ ’: Simmons v. Winters, 21 Or. 35 (27 Pac. 7, 28 Am. St. Rep. 727); Hindman v. Rizor, 21 Or. 112 (27 Pac. 13); Hough v. Porter, 51 Or. 318 (95 Pac. 732, 98 Pac. 1083, 102 Pac. 728); Mann v. Parker, 48 Or. 321 (86 Pac. 598); Caviness v. La Grande Irr. Co., 60 Or. 410 (119 Pac. 731); In Re Schollmeyer, 69 Or. 210 (138 Pac. 211). To the extent that water is wasted or is used extravagantly [381]*381appropriation in its true sense is vitiated. Priority attaches only to what is reasonable and necessary for a beneficial purpose. Excessive greed and avarice in the appropriation of water cannot be countenanced or gratified.

2. As a source of title prior to the appropriation initiated by its immediate grantee, the Western Company claims (1) under a notice filed by the Umatilla Meadows and Butter Creek Canal Company posted March 8,1891, proposing to appropriate 10,000 miner’s inches of water; (2) under a notice of J. M. Jones et al., posted March 25, 1891, claiming 50,000 miner’s inches; and (3) under the notice of the Columbia Valley Land & Irrigation Company posted October 24, 1891, declaring its design to take out 80,000 miner’s inches in addition to the amount specified in the preceding notices which it claimed to have purchased. These three rights, whatever they amounted to, were acquired by the Hinkle Ditch Company which posted its notice for 225,000 miner’s inches on March 14, 1903. Concerning them we adopt the statement made by the Western Company in its brief, giving a history of the operations of the Columbia Valley Land & Irrigation Company after it acquired the rights of the first two appropriators mentioned: ‘ The headgate was washed out in the winter of 1894 and no further use was made of the ditch until the advent of the Hinkle Company, which succeeded to the Hunt rights.” Notwithstanding this admission, amply supported by testimony as it is, the Western Company maintains that nonuser will not work abandonment of water rights unless it has continued for ten years and hence that the period between the destruction of the headgate in 1894 and the initiative of the Hinkle Company on March 14, 1903, [382]*382was not sufficient to bring about that result. It is true that the courts have decided that an absolute nonuser of a water right for ten years conclusively amounts to an abandonment, but it does not follow that a result of this sort may not be accomplished in less time. Indeed, a water user could abandon his project instantly. Formerly the difficulty was in the proof of the- abandonment. However, to set such matters at rest, the Act of February 18, 1891, supra, to which the Western Company traces all its rights, established a rule in Section 22, codified as Section 6546, L. O. L., in this language:

“The right to appropriate money (water) hereby granted may be lost by abandonment; and if any corporation constructing a ditch or canal or flume under the provisions of this act shall fail or neglect to use the same for the period of one year at any time, it shall be taken and deemed to have abandoned its appropriation, and the water appropriated shall revert to the public, and be subject to other appropriations in order of priority; but the question of abandonment shall be one of fact, to be tried and determined as other questions of fact.”

This excerpt is to be distinguished from Section 6571, L. 0. L., fixing the period of nonuser at two years, the latter being part of the Act of February 18, 1899, relating to the taking of water for the purpose of developing the mineral resources of the state and furnishing electrical power; while the former is embodied in the act of February 18, 1891, concerning the appropriation of water for irrigation and domestic use and for watering livestock. The two acts treat of different subjects and each provides its own limit of nonuser as a ground of forfeiture. They are not contradictory.

[383]*383Confessedly, as stated in the brief and as we think is manifest from the evidence, the predecessors of the Western Company utterly failed to make any use of their water conduit for more than one year. The statute mentioned draws but one conclusion from this established fact and that is abandonment, with the consequence that the water sought reverts to the public and is subject to other appropriations in order of priority. Under these circumstances the Circuit Court was right in refusing to recognize any of the Western Company’s predecessors in title earlier than the Hinkle Ditch Company which began operations March 14, 1903, and in fixing this as the date of the former’s rights.

3. The notice and map of the Hinkle Ditch Company is in evidence. After describing the point of diversion on the western bank of the Umatilla River the notice states:

“The general direction of said ditch and flume is to •be in a westerly direction from this point of diversion of water a distance of about 12 miles to Butter Creek. ’ ’

The accompanying map shows this same condition of a single ditch running from the Umatilla to Butter Creek. This notice marks the limit of the proposed enterprise, and activities beyond its scope constitute new ventures requiring additional notice complying with the terms of the statute as for the inauguration of a new appropriation: Andrews v. Donnelly, 59 Or. 138 (116 Pac. 569).

Using March 14, 1903, as a starting point for the Hinkle Ditch enterprise to which the Western Company succeeded, the Circuit Court ascertained the amount of acreage to which that appropriation of water might be beneficially and economically applied, [384]*384giving it the date of priority last above mentioned. In our judgment the testimony supports this conclusion of fact and defines the limit of the Hinkle Ditch Company’s appropriation under its original notice.

4. The general government acquired by purchase what is known as-the Minnehaha Ditch and the Maxwell Ditch.

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

Related

Klamath Irrigation District v. United States
635 F.3d 505 (Federal Circuit, 2011)
Klamath Irrigation District v. United States
227 P.3d 1145 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2010)
Klamath Irrigation District v. United States
67 Fed. Cl. 504 (Federal Claims, 2005)
Teel Irrigation District v. Water Resources Department
898 P.2d 1344 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1995)
In re the Marriage of Sands
669 P.2d 358 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1983)
Booras v. Uyeda
666 P.2d 791 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1983)
Hennings v. Water Resources Department
622 P.2d 333 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1981)
Moore v. Brown
527 P.2d 132 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1974)
Bennett v. CITY OF SALEM
235 P.2d 772 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1951)
Oliver v. Skinner and Lodge
226 P.2d 507 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1951)
Tudor v. Jaca
165 P.2d 770 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1946)
State v. Laramie Rivers Co.
136 P.2d 487 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1943)
In Re Waters of Walla Walla River
16 P.2d 939 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1933)
In Re Water Rights of Deschutes River
294 P. 1049 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1929)
In Re Rights to Use of Waters of Silvies River
237 P. 322 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1924)
Willow River Water Users Ass'n v. Orchards Water Co.
239 P. 123 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1924)
Re Determination of Water Rights of Hood River.
227 P. 1065 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1923)
Squaw Creek Irrigation District v. Mamero
214 P. 889 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1923)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
168 P. 922, 88 Or. 376, 1917 Ore. LEXIS 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-waters-of-umatilla-river-or-1917.