New Era Irr. Co. v. Warren Irr. Co.

160 P. 1195, 48 Utah 544, 1915 Utah LEXIS 84
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 17, 1915
DocketNo. 2787
StatusPublished

This text of 160 P. 1195 (New Era Irr. Co. v. Warren Irr. Co.) 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
New Era Irr. Co. v. Warren Irr. Co., 160 P. 1195, 48 Utah 544, 1915 Utah LEXIS 84 (Utah 1915).

Opinion

STRAUP, C. J.

The plaintiff, as against the defendants, claims a primary right to pump water from Weber River at or near a place called Draney’s Bend, west of Ogden City. The plaintiff claims that it and its predecessor, at that place, in September, 1911, appropriated thirty second feet of unappropriated water by pumping it from the stream. It further claims that the defendants, above the plaintiff’s intake, pumped water from •the stream belonging to the plaintiff. It therefore brought this action for injunctive relief. The defendant Warren Irrigation Company answered and counterclaimed that it, for [545]*545more than eight years, had acquired and owned a primary right to pump, for irrigation purposes, fifteen second feet of water from the river, which right was prior and superior to that of the plaintiff’s. The other defendant, the Pioneer Land & Irrigation Company, answered that it and its predecessors, in January, 1903, appropriated twenty second feet of water by pumping.it from the stream, which right was superior and paramount to that of the plaintiff. The plains tiff, in reply, denied that the Warren Irrigation Company had, by means of pumping at the place in question, pumped, diverted, or used for a beneficial purpose any of the waters from the stream; and as to the other defendant, the Pioneer Land & Irrigation Company, it alleged that it, in the years 1903 and 1905, both inclusive, appropriated and pumped, at the place in question, not to exceed two second feet of water; but that in the early summer of 1905, and thereafter, and until 1913, it ceased to pump, or divert, or use any of the waters from the stream, and wholly abandoned and forfeited whatever right it may have had in and to the use of any of the waters. The case was tried to the court, who found the issues in favor of the defendants.

The court found that, in 1903, the Pioneer Land & Irrigation Company, and its predecessor, appropriated and acquired the right to use, for irrigation .purposes, seven second foot of water at the place in question, and that it, duping the year 1905, pumped seven second feet of water into its ditch for its stockholders for irrigation purposes; but “that from the years 1907 to 1911, both inclusive, it did not use any of the waters through its pumping system. ’ ’

The court further found:

“That the said Joseph Howard Skeen (the predecessor of the Pioneer Land & Irrigation Company), at the time he established said pumping system, put in a six-inch pump for the purpose of raising the waters of said Weber River into his flume and ditch. That thereafter, in the year 1905, the defendant Pioneer Land & Irrigation Company installed a ten-inch pump, which was operated by a steam engine of twenty-five horse power and a boiler of forty horse power. That during the year 1908 the defendant Pioneer Land & [546]*546Irrigation Company disposed of its engine and boiler and did not install another engine and boiler until the year 1912. That during the year 1909 the officers of the Pioneer Land & Irrigation Company were making investigations of electric power with the intention of operating said pump with electricity. That in the spring of 1912 the officer of the defendant Pioneer Land & Irrigation Company installed a fifty horse power engine and sixty horse power boiler, at an expense of $2,500, for the purpose of operating said pump to lift water for irrigation purposes. That said engine and boiler were not installed in time so that said pump could be operated for irrigation purposes during the year 1912, but the Pioneer Land & Irrigation Company did pump during the fall of 1912, for the purpose of testing said pump, engine, and boiler. That during the year 1913 the defendant Pioneer Land & Irrigation Company furnished waters through its said pumping system as then installed and through its various ditches and flumes to irrigate about 500 acres of land belonging to the "stockholders of said company. That the main ditch used in conveying said water was two feet deep, four feet wide on the bottom, and six feet on the top, and carried water which was pumped through its said system of seven second feet. That said seven second feet of water is necessary for the use of the stockholders of the defendant Pioneer Land & Irrigation Company to raise and mature crops growing on their said lands. That all the land owned by the stockholders of the Pioneer Land & Irrigation Company is located in sections four, five and six, and thirty-two, township six north, range two west, Salt Lake meridian.
‘ ‘ That at no time has the defendant Pioneer Land & Irrigation Company intended to or has abandoned its rights to the use of the waters under said water right as set out in the notice of the said Joseph Howard Skeen.
“That more than twenty-five years ago the predecessor in interest of the plaintiff constructed that certain canal and canal system known as the Warren Irrigation Canal, tapping the Weber River about four miles below Ogden City and the Mill creek and Four Mile creek, tributaries of the Weber River, at points just above said canal as the same crosses said [547]*547streams, and by means of said canal and lateral ditches and dams placed in said streams appropriated, diverted, and used all the waters aforesaid from said several sources of supply during the irrigation season of each and every year since said time, for the irrigation of crops, and for culinary, domestic, and other useful and beneficial purposes on the lands of the stockholders of the defendant Warren Irrigation Company, and their predecessors in interest, and have ever since continuously diverted, appropriated, and used all the waters aforesaid during the irrigation season of each and every year, except at such times when there was a surplus of water in said several sources of supply during the early irrigation season; and that on the 22d day of January, 1906, the state engineer of the state of Utah duly issued his certificate of appropriation to one W. L. Stewart, in the words and figures following (setting it forth in full).”

It shows an application for an appropriation of fifteen second feet of water by W. L. Stewart for irrigation purposes, and contains recitals that the water is lifted from the stream by means of pumping and diverted and used for such purposes, and that he was’entitled to the use of that quantity of water, and contains other necessary recitals not here material.

That Stewart and his wife, in June, 1912, conveyed all his right so acquired to the Warren Irrigation Company who “immediately in the same year installed a new pumping plant at the point described in th,e plaintiff’s complaint, and known as Draney’s Bend, and in said certificate mentioned, at great expense, to wit, at an expense of about $8,000, ■ and during every irrigation season since said time during the low water season when there was a shortage of water in the Weber River and the sources of supply of the said defendant Warren Irrigation Company, the said defendant Warren Irrigation Company, has pumped water from the Weber River by means of said pumping plant, and into said canal of the Warren Irrigation Company, and distributed the same through said canal system for irrigation, culinary, and domestic purposes to the stockholders of the defendant Warren Irrigation Company. [548]*548That the stockholders of the defendant Warren Irrigation Company, and their predecessors in interest, have irrigated and still continue to irrigate about 1,700 acres of land under said canal system.

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Bluebook (online)
160 P. 1195, 48 Utah 544, 1915 Utah LEXIS 84, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-era-irr-co-v-warren-irr-co-utah-1915.