Johnston v. Pleasant Valley Irr. Co.

204 P.2d 434, 69 Idaho 139, 1949 Ida. LEXIS 218
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 15, 1949
DocketNo. 7456.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 204 P.2d 434 (Johnston v. Pleasant Valley Irr. 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
Johnston v. Pleasant Valley Irr. Co., 204 P.2d 434, 69 Idaho 139, 1949 Ida. LEXIS 218 (Idaho 1949).

Opinion

PORTER, Justice.

The respondent, Pleasant Valley Irrigation Company, Ltd., is a mutual irrigation corporation. It has 1521 shares of capital stock issued and outstanding. It owns, maintains and operates a small reservoir in Ada County, Idaho. It collects and stores water in its reservoir and distributes the same through its system of ditches and canals to its shareholders for irrigation and domestic use. The principal source of water supply for such reservoir is Ten Mile Creek, sometimes known as Black’s Creek. The water supply consists largely of early spring flood water. Usually the flow in Ten Mile Creek ceases to reach the reservoir sometime between the last of March and the first of May.

For several years prior to 1946, one Erl Harris was the owner of 200 shares of the capital stock of the respondent. The water represented by this stock was originally allotted to lands immediately below the reservoir. However, in 1944 and 1945, Harris ■having acquired lands lying some nine or ■ten miles below the reservoir, attempted to use such water, with indifferent success,upon such lands.

On February 9, 1946, the appellant purchased from one Oliver Lord what is known in these proceedings as the Lord ranch, ly *142 ing approximately four miles above respondent’s reservoir and adjacent to Ten Mile Creek. By a decree of court entered in 1939, the respondent was awarded 1300 miner’s inches of the waters of Ten Mile Creek with various dates of priority, together with storage rights of 7900 acre feet. The Lord ranch was likewise awarded 95 miner’s inches of such waters; and there was also awarded to such ranch the use of the water remaining in the creek after it breaks and no longer reaches the reservoir.

On June 15, 1946, the appellant purchased 100 shares of the capital stock of the respondent from the said Erl Harris. Appellant claims that he commenced diverting the water represented by such 100 shares from the natural flow of Ten Mile Creek in the spring of 1946 before the actual purchase o(f the stock was consummated; and that he likewise diverted such water in the spring of 1947. This diversion was at a point some four miles above the reservoir and was for use on the Lord ranch. The respondent levied its regular maintenance assessments for the years 1946 and 1947 upon all its stock, and such assessments were paid by the appellant.

On June 3, 1947, the appellant filed an application with the Department of Reclamation for change of point of diversion and place of use of the water represented by such 100 shares of stock; the new point of diversion to be on Ten Mile Creek some four miles' above the reservoir and the new place of use to be on the Lord ranch. Such application was duly advertised for hearing and the respondent appeared in protest thereto. A hearing was duly had before the State Reclamation Engineer and the application denied. The appellant thereupon appealed to the District Court of the Third Judicial District of the State of Idaho, in and for Ada County. Thereafter a trial was duly held in said District Court upon the issues made by the petition on appeal and respondent’s answer thereto. At the close of appellant’s testimony, the respondent made a motion for nonsuit. The court sustained the motion for nonsuit and entered an Order of Dismissal which reads in part as follows:

“ * * * and it appearing to the Court at the conclusion of petitioner’s ^proof in support of said petition and from said petition that the water right sought to be transferred in this proceeding is represented by shares of stock in objector, Pleasant Valley Irrigation Company, Ltd., a mutual cooperative irrigation company; and that the lands to be irrigated after the proposed transfer cannot be irrigated through the irrigation system of said objector corporation, and that the latter has not consented to such change of point of diversion and place of use of said water right, * *

Judgment was entered for the respondent, dismissing such appeal and awarding costs to respondent. From such judgment the appellant has appealed to this court.

*143 Section 41-108, I.C.A., as amended by Chapter 53, Session Laws of 1943, reads as follows :

“41-108. Change in Point of Diversion and Place of Use. — The person entitled to the use of water or owning any land to which water has been made appurtenant either by a decree of the court or under the provisions of the Constitution and statutes of this state, may change the point of diversion, and/or may voluntarily abandon the use of such water in whole or in part on the land which is receiving the benefit of the same and transfer the same to other lands, if the water rights of others are not injured by such change in point of diversion or place of use, provided; if the right to the use of such water, or the use of the diversion works or irrigation system is represented by shares of stock in a corporation, no change in the point of diversion or place of use of such water shall be made or allowed without the consent of such corporation, except to lands which may be irrigated through the same system, and provided further, that the provisions of this act shall have no application to irrigation systems operating under the provisions of the act of Congress of the United States known as the Carey Act.” (Emphasis supplied.)

The amendment of said section by Chapter 80, Session Laws 1947, by including irrigation districts is not involved in this case.

The record does not show and it is not urged that the actual consent of the respondent to the proposed changes was ever obtained. Appellant is forced to rely upon implied consent allegedly arising from assessment and collection of maintenance charges by respondent, and use of the water by appellant, for the years 1946 and 1947. The assessment and collection of maintenance charges upon all its capital stock was the right and duty of the respondent. There was no delivery of water through the system of the respondent to the appellant. The record does not reveal any knowledge by the respondent of, or acquiescence in, the action of the appellant in diverting any water from Ten Mile Creek other than under his decreed rights. The record is not such as to disclose any implied consent on the part of the respondent.

The appellant seeks to avoid the effect of the absence of consent by respondent, by attacking the constitutionality of said Section 41-108, as amended. Appellant first contends that said section provides for the taking of property without due process of law and is therefore in contravention of Amendment XIV of the Constitution of the United States and Article I, Section 13, of the Constitution of the State of Idaho.

Article XV, Section 1 of the Constitution of Idaho declares the use of water “to be a public use, and subject to the regulation and control of the state in the manner prescribed by law.” Pursuant to this provision, the Legislature has enacted various statutes regulating and controlling the appropriation and use of water. The above Section 41-108, as amended, is one of such statutes. *144 In Washington State Sugar Co. v. Goodrich, 27 Idaho 26, 147 P. 1073, 1078, this court in discussing the right to change the point of diversion, quotes with apparent approval from Farmers’ High Line Canal & Reservoir Co. v. Wolff, 23 Colo.App. 570, 131 P. 291, as follows:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
204 P.2d 434, 69 Idaho 139, 1949 Ida. LEXIS 218, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnston-v-pleasant-valley-irr-co-idaho-1949.