Sallee v. Commonwealth Trust Co. of Pittsburgh

8 F.2d 227, 1925 U.S. App. LEXIS 3261
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedOctober 12, 1925
DocketNo. 4514
StatusPublished

This text of 8 F.2d 227 (Sallee v. Commonwealth Trust Co. of Pittsburgh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sallee v. Commonwealth Trust Co. of Pittsburgh, 8 F.2d 227, 1925 U.S. App. LEXIS 3261 (9th Cir. 1925).

Opinion

HUNT, Circuit Judge

(after stating the

facts as above). [1] Appellants argue that the case should have been dismissed for lack of indispensable parties, because, when the cause was submitted there remained lands for which water rights were outstanding for which settlements had not been made, and that the other settlers must be brought in as indispensable to adjudication of the various claims. Plaintiffs cite Commonwealth Trust Co. v. Smith, 266 U. S. 152, 45 S. Ct. 26, 69 L. Ed. 219, affirming our decision in 273 F. 1, but we think there is a clear distinction between this and the Smith Case. In the pleading herein ti# plaintiffs accept [229]*229the action of the state land board and the Secretary oO the Interior, whereby there was a reduction of the project to 35,000 acres of irrigable lands, and have shown that, prior to the entry of the decrees appealed from, appellants acquired the stock from the excluded lands and have deposited with the clerk of the District Court shares representing 15A shares for each irrigable acre in the respective tracts owned or claimed to be owned by appellants. Thus, without regard to the claims of other settlers, each of the appellants has the same proportionate share and interest in the water rights of the project as he would have had if there never had been contracts outstanding for more than 35,000 irrigable acres. In the Smith Case the complaint was construed as disregarding the stipulations fixing the price of the water right at $40 per acre, on the theory that the lien claimed was to ho determined by distributing the total actual outlay for the works with interest, over all of the reclaimed lands on the acreage basis. Upon that theory the allegations of the complaint were considered as involving the determination of the total outlay and of the total area reclaimed, and, in view of the comprehensiveness of those questions, the Supreme Court said (266 U. S. 161, 45 S. Ct. 29):

“Every, contract holder has an interest in them and will be affected by their determination, however made. It is of concern to him, not merely whether his tract is held to have been reclaimed and to be chargeable with part of the general outlay, hut also whether and to what extent other lands are in the same situation. In this and other respects what is determined in respect of other holders is of direct concern to him. In short, the interests of the contract holders are so related that an effective and just determination of the questions can only be had in a proceeding to which all are parties.”

No such allegations are found in the present complaint, and the decree herein, as between the parties before the court, has determined their rights without injuriously affecting the rights of others not before the court. Waterman v. Canal Bank, 215 U. S. 33, 48, 30 S. Ct. 10, 54 L. Ed. 80.

Defendants next urge that the contract was for a specific quantity of water, and that no recovery by plaintiffs should be based upon the duty of water, and that evidence respecting the duty of water was erroneously received and considered. That question is no longer an open one, for in Twin Falls Salmon River Land & Water Co. v. Caldwell, 242 F. 177, 155 C. C. A. 17, Id., 272 F. 356, it was held that the settlors were entitled under their contracts to one-hundredth of a cubic foot per second per acre, provided such quantity could be beneficially applied, but were not entitled as a contractual right to 2% acre feet per second, as that amount was merely determined in an advance estimate made by the proposer of the plan as to the capacity of the system. In Idaho Irrigation Co. v. Gooding, 265 U. S. 518, 44 S. Ct. 618, 68 L. Ed. 1157, it was held that the provisions of the Idaho statutes (sections 5640 and 7033, St. 1919) must be read into the contract, and that the settlers are not entitled to a specific quantity of water equal to the contract rate of flow through the irrigation season, unless it is shown that such quantity is not in excess of the reasonable duty of water, giving due consideration to the character of the area and the limited quantity of water available for reclamation. In State v. Twin Falls, etc., Co., 30 Idaho, 41, 166 P. 220, the Supreme Court of Idaho laid down the same rule. The later state cases Tapper v. Idaho Irrigation Co., 36 Idaho, 78, 210 P. 591, modified on rehearing, Boley v. Twin Falls Canal Co., 37 Idaho, 318, 217 P. 258, State v. Twin Falls, etc., Co., 37 Idaho, 73, 217 P. 252, are not in conflict with the Ra.yl Case (State v. Twin Falls, etc., Co.), supra, for in none of them does it appear that the court .was called upon to decide claims by settlers for more water than could be used for beneficial purposes.

Appellants insist that no interest should be allowed to the plaintiffs upon recovery except from the date of the entry of the decree of foreclosure, and under no circumstances' from a time prior to the date patent was issued by the United States to the state, or January 13,1921. Again is the appellant confronted with a pertinent adjudication,- for in Glavin v. Commonwealth Trust Co. (C. C. A.) 295 F. 103, appellants therein made much the same argument as have the appellants herein, but we held that the purchase price of the amount of water received, though only 76 per cent, of the amount contracted for, being the same proportionate quantity received by all other irrigators under the system, should bear interest during the time the appellants received and used the water at the rate specified in. the contracts. See Twin Falls Oakley Land & Water Co. v. Martens (C. C. A.) 271 F. 428, certiorari denied 257 U. S. 637, 42 S. Ct. 49, 66 L. Ed. 410.

With respect to the period for which interest should be computed, the District Court found that, on April 12, 1911, the construe[230]*230tion Company gave notice that it was prepared to deliver water under a system of rotation to all entered lands upon the project, aggregating 70,000 acres. Section 3014, Idaho St. The settlers’ contract with the construction company provides that interest shall commence to run upon deferred payments on April 1, 1910. All interest accruing prior to the date upon which notice is given to the entryman that the company was prepared to furnish water under the contracts was expressly waived. With respect to the notice, inasmuch as the agreements with the settlers called for an ample supply of water for the entire irrigation season, no really effective notice could he given until the company was prepared to furnish water for the entire irrigation season and the full quantity required by the settlers’ contracts. It is plain that preparation to furnish water to some settlers, but not to others, was not compliance with the statutes. Nor was preparation to furnish by a “system of rotation,” not by continuous flow, using a supply insufficient to meet contract requirements in accord with the scheme of the legislation authorizing the Carey Act projects. The notice published by plaintiff on April 12, 1911, which was after April 1st, the agreed date of the beginning of the irrigating season, was presumably published with a view of fixing the beginning of the statutory period in which the settler was called upon to cultivate his land and make final proof thereon, and also to start the date of the running of the interest.

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Related

Waterman v. Canal-Louisiana Bank & Trust Co.
215 U.S. 33 (Supreme Court, 1909)
Idaho Irrigation Co. v. Gooding
265 U.S. 518 (Supreme Court, 1924)
Commonwealth Trust Co. of Pittsburgh v. Smith
266 U.S. 152 (Supreme Court, 1924)
Work v. United States Ex Rel. Lynn
266 U.S. 161 (Supreme Court, 1924)
State v. Twin Falls-Salmon River Land & Water Co.
166 P. 220 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1916)
Tapper v. Idaho Irrigation Co.
210 P. 591 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1922)
State v. Twin Falls Land & Water Co.
217 P. 252 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1923)
Boley v. Twin Falls Canal Co.
217 P. 258 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1923)
Twin Falls Oakley Land & Water Co. v. Martens
271 F. 428 (Ninth Circuit, 1921)
Commonwealth Trust Co. v. Smith
273 F. 1 (Ninth Circuit, 1921)
Glavin v. Commonwealth Trust Co.
295 F. 103 (Ninth Circuit, 1924)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
8 F.2d 227, 1925 U.S. App. LEXIS 3261, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sallee-v-commonwealth-trust-co-of-pittsburgh-ca9-1925.