Salt Lake City v. Salt Lake City Water & Electrical Power Co.

61 L.R.A. 648, 67 P. 672, 24 Utah 249, 1902 Utah LEXIS 4
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 1, 1902
DocketNo. 1319
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 61 L.R.A. 648 (Salt Lake City v. Salt Lake City Water & Electrical Power 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
Salt Lake City v. Salt Lake City Water & Electrical Power Co., 61 L.R.A. 648, 67 P. 672, 24 Utah 249, 1902 Utah LEXIS 4 (Utah 1902).

Opinions

BART OH, J.

This action was brought to quiet title to the waters of the Jordan river, and the defendants and interveners are quite numerous. At the trial the court made findings of fact and of law, and entered a decree, inter alia, that the defendant Salt Lake City Water & Electrical Power Company is the owner of and entitled to the right to use all the waters of the river flowing in the channel at and above a point where the company’s power plant is situated, and to convey such water to its power plant for use in operating the same, the water then to be returned to the stream and certain irrigating canals; and decreed to each of the other parties to the suit a certain portion of the water flowing in the stream, and appointed a commissioner at a certain monthly salary to superintend and direct the measurement and division of the water distributed by the decree in accordance therewith, to direct, supervise, and inspect all means and appliances for the diversion, conveyance, and use of the water, and to report to the court from time to time any violations of the provisions [256]*256of the decree; the court retaining original jurisdiction of the case for the purpose of making all necessary orders and decrees to make effectual the rights awarded and preserved. The plaintiff Salt Lake City now challenges the correctness of the decree by this appeal.

It is insisted by the appellant that the court erred in decreeing as follows: “That the said city and canal and irrigation companies shall at all times allow to flow unimpeded down through the channel of said river a sufficient quantity of water, which, when added to the accretions to the river from seepage and other sources, will furnish at the various points of diversion and measurement the several quantities of water herein awarded to the West Jordan Milling & Mercantile Company, the Utah Mattress & Manufacturing Company, the United States Mining Company, William Cooper, Jr., and Bennion & Bennion for tire operation of their several mills and factories;' and during the irrigation season of each year shall allow to flow unimpeded through the channel of the river such additional quantity of water as will, when added to the accretions from seepage and other sources, supply, at the various points of diversion and measurement, the quantity of water herein awarded to the several farmers and landowners taking water for irrigation purposes through the Gardner mill race, the Galena canal, the Beckstead Irrigating Company’s canal, the Mousley ditch, Bennion & Bennion mill race, and the ■Cooper mill race, as hereinbefore set forth; and during the winter, or non-irrigating season, four cubic feet of water for the use of the stockholders of the Beckstead Irrigating Company for domestic and culinary purposes. . . . That, subject to these limitations, and to the limitations and conditions contained in the agreement of compromise entered into in 1885 between Joseph H. Colladge and others and said city and canal and irrigation companies, the said city and canal and irrigation companies have the right at all times to shut off, impound, and store the entire flow of the Jordan river, [257]*257and bold and save the same for future use, to the extent which, in their judgment, their interests may require.” It is urged that this paragraph of the decree restricts the right of storage to the extent of making it subject at all times to the use of prior appropriators, and that under its provisions the quantity of water awarded to the prior appropriators must at all times be permitted to flow past the impounding dam, without regard to the necessities for impounding and storing the water, the impounding dam having been constructed about the year 1889. These provisions of the decree, it is claimed, are inconsistent with and unsupported by the findings of fact.

Upon careful examination of the findings in support of the part of the decree above quoted, we are not prepared to assent t-o the position here assumed. The appellant does not seem to recognize the force and effect to which the limitations contained in the last part of the above quotation are entitled. It is true that the court also found that in dry seasons the flow of the river became insufficient to supply the needs of the several appropriators and users; that in the year 1889 Salt Lake City and certain canal companies entered into an agreement by which they jointly dredged the bed of the river and removed natural obstructions therein, thereby becoming enabled to draw the water from Utah Lake through the channel of the river at a level twenty-two inches lower than before such dredging; that during the years 1889 and 1890 they constructed a new dam in the river, to enable them to store the water of the lake for use, when needed, and contributed equally to the cost of dredging, of construction of the dam, and of its maintenance ever since; that in storing the water they caused certain lands adjacent to the lake to be flooded, in consequence of which a number of suits were commenced by farmers of Utah county, which finally resulted'in an agreement of compromise, made in the year 1885, whereby the owners of those lands granted the city and canal companies the right, so far [258]*258as the flooding of the lands was concerned, to hold back and store the waters in the lake until they should rise to a point three feet three and one-half inches above the low-water mark, which point has since been known as “compromise point,” and its exact location fixed and determined by judicial decisions; and that said compromise agreement contains a provision for the election annually of a board of five persons, who have since been known as “Utah Lake Commissioners,” under whose direction the rights granted by the agreement should be exercised by the city and canal companies. We perceive nothing in the findings of fact thus far quoted and referred to which sustains the contention of the appellant on this point. It is clear that the owners of the flooded lands who were parties to the compromise agreement and permitted the storage of the water of the lake were not the farmers and mill owners or prior appropriators mentioned in the above quotation from the decree. Nor does it here appear that such prior appropriators were parties to the suits, or how their rights are affected by the decisions referred to in the findings. In the absence of any showing that the prior appropriators referred to in the provisions of the decree above quoted were parties to the suits mentioned, or to the compromise agreement, or in some way assented to the storage of the water of the lake which they had appropriated, it is difficult to see upon what ground that part of the decree which simply grants them such rights as accrue by virtue of prior appropriation is inconsistent with and unsupported by those findings. It is, however, further found: “That ever since 1885 to the present time the said city and said canal and irrigation companies have openly, notoriously, continuously, and adversely, against all the world, maintained and used said Utah Lake as a reservoir, and said dam as an impounding dam to hold back and store the waters in the lake, when necessary to do so, in order to supply their needs during seasons of scarcity of water, and the said city and canal and irrigation companies have each [259]*259contributed an equal share of all costs and expenses of ¿11 matters growing out of such joint enterprises.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
61 L.R.A. 648, 67 P. 672, 24 Utah 249, 1902 Utah LEXIS 4, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/salt-lake-city-v-salt-lake-city-water-electrical-power-co-utah-1902.