Murdock v. Springville Municipal Corp.

1999 UT 39, 982 P.2d 65, 368 Utah Adv. Rep. 9, 1999 Utah LEXIS 47
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedApril 23, 1999
DocketNo. 960299
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 1999 UT 39 (Murdock v. Springville Municipal Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Murdock v. Springville Municipal Corp., 1999 UT 39, 982 P.2d 65, 368 Utah Adv. Rep. 9, 1999 Utah LEXIS 47 (Utah 1999).

Opinion

ZIMMERMAN, Justice:

¶ 1 This matter is before us as two separate appeals from two separate but parallel proceedings that involve the same parties and the same subject matter. Factually, this case involves a dispute between several water users (“petitioners”) and the city of Springville.1 The petitioners are all water rights holders. They own land in Springville [67]*67and hold diligence rights to waters from a source in Spring Creek Canyon Creek (“Spring Creek”). Although the record is less than clear, it seems that the petitioners are all successors in interest to A.W. Cher-rington (“Cherrington”). For descriptive clarity, we will therefore refer to the petitioners as the “Cherrington successors.” Cher-rington held diligence rights to water from this Spring Creek source dating back to the mid-nineteenth century, but he lost use of water from that specific source early in this century when Springville took it for its municipal water works. In exchange, Cherring-ton began receiving substitute water from a different source through the Highline Ditch (alternatively known as the “Highline Canal”). In essence, the Cherrington successors contend that they are entitled not to water from different sources in quantities equal to the diligence rights Cherrington held in Spring Creek, but to water from Spring Creek itself. They challenge the entitlement of Springville to the water of Spring Creek that has been diverted into the municipal water system for more than sixty years.

¶ 2 The Cherrington successors and Springville have been locked in this dispute for many years, first as part of an ongoing general water adjudication pertaining to all the waters of Utah Lake and its tributaries, and then as part of a separate proceeding brought pursuant to Utah Code Ann. § 73-4-24 (“section -24”) by the Cherrington successors in an attempt to break the Spring Creek issues out from the general adjudication and accelerate their determination. Today, we address an interlocutory appeal from the general adjudication resolving issues against the Cherrington successors and an appeal dismissing the separate section -24 proceeding. The parties raise many issues. We find it necessary to address only the following allegations of trial court error: (i) the grant of partial summary judgment to Springville in the general adjudication; (ii) the denial of the Cherrington successors’ motion to reconsider the partial summary judgment based on new evidence; (iii) the grant of Spring-ville’s motion to strike the first and second affidavits of Robert Murdock; and (iv) the grant of Springville’s second motion to dismiss the Cherrington successors’ section -24 petition. We decide each point against the Cherrington successors except that we reverse the grant of partial summary judgment to Springville as it relates to all the Cher-rington successors except Captóla Murdock.

¶3 This case has a long and convoluted history. Both the Cherrington successors and Springville claim water rights in Spring Creek dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. In 1911, Springville began development of its municipal water works and began taking water out of Spring Creek for those works; it traded water from Burt Springs for water of Spring Creek. In 1918, Spring-ville began taking additional water from Spring Creek and replacing it with water from Hobble Creek. This was the trade that affected Cherrington. He lost his Spring Creek water and began receiving water from Hobble Creek in its place. The switch from Spring Creek to Hobble Creek sources was gradual and was completed by 1935. Spring-ville delivered water from Hobble Creek to those individuals who had water rights in Spring Creek, including Cherrington, through the Highline Canal.

¶ 4 In 1936, Salt Lake City brought an action against approximately 2,430 defendants to determine water rights in Utah Lake and its tributaries. This court converted the suit into a general adjudication in 1944, which is still pending. See Salt Lake City v. Anderson, 106 Utah 350, 362, 148 P.2d 346 (1944). In 1961, Judge Maurice Harding of the Fourth District Court adjudicated a dispute between Springville and, inter alia, Captóla Murdock within the context of the general adjudication. It was entitled W. Blaine Murdock and Captóla C. Mur-dock, plaintiffs v. The City of Springville, a municipal corporation and Springville Irrigation Co., a Utah Corporation, defendants, Civil No. 22850. Judge Harding’s ruling is hereinafter referred to as the “Harding decree.” The meaning of the Harding decree is at issue in this case and it will be discussed at length.

¶ 5 In 1986, as part of the general adjudication, the State Engineer issued his Proposed Determination of Water Rights in [68]*68Utah Lake and Jordan River Drainage Area, Spanish Fork River Subdivision, Hobble Creek-Springville Subdivision, Code 51, No. 4 (“Proposed Determination”) which purported to describe water rights in the Spring-ville-Hobble Creek drainage, including the respective rights of the Cherrington successors and Springville. An extensive struggle ensued in two separate but parallel proceedings.

¶ 6 First, in the general adjudication, both Springville and the Cherrington successors filed objections to the Proposed Determination. In response to the objections, the State Engineer issued a 1992 Addendum to the Proposed Determination (hereinafter “Addendum”). The Cherrington successors then filed their objections to the Addendum, and Springville filed its response. In 1995, Springville filed a motion for partial summary judgment in the general adjudication. The motion was based on the claim that the principles of res judicata require the validation of the water rights of Springville that were adjudicated by the Harding decree and set forth in the State Engineer’s Addendum. The Cherrington successors filed a memorandum in opposition to Springville’s motion for partial summary judgment and an affidavit of Robert Murdock. Springville submitted a motion to strike the affidavit of Robert Mur-dock. In June of 1996, the trial court granted both Springville’s motion to strike the Murdock affidavit and its motion for partial summary judgment. The court found that res judicata applied because the “State Engineer was obligated to apply the Harding Decree to the water rights of Murdock and Springville under Utah Code Ann. § 73^1-11 (1953).”

¶ 7 In November of 1996, the Cherrington successors filed a motion for partial summary judgment and a motion to reconsider the partial summary judgment granted to Springville in June of 1996. Both Springville and the State Engineer opposed the Cher-rington successors’ motions. In March of 1997, the trial court denied both of the Cher-rington successors’ motions. It found that the Cherrington successors “failed to present any new evidence or any evidence to justify their Motion to Reconsider” and that they “failed to establish any basis to reverse the Court’s Order Granting Motion of Partial Summary Judgment” to Springville. The Cherrington successors sought an interlocutory appeal which we granted. It is one of the two appeals consolidated before us today.

¶8 While all this was going on in the general adjudication, the Cherrington successors also sought relief through parallel processes.

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Bluebook (online)
1999 UT 39, 982 P.2d 65, 368 Utah Adv. Rep. 9, 1999 Utah LEXIS 47, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/murdock-v-springville-municipal-corp-utah-1999.