Spokane Ranch & Water Co. v. Beatty

96 P. 727, 37 Mont. 342, 1908 Mont. LEXIS 61
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 18, 1908
DocketNo. 2,523
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 96 P. 727 (Spokane Ranch & Water Co. v. Beatty) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Spokane Ranch & Water Co. v. Beatty, 96 P. 727, 37 Mont. 342, 1908 Mont. LEXIS 61 (Mo. 1908).

Opinions

MB. JUSTICE SMITH

delivered the opinion of the court.

This action involves rights to the use of the waters of Beaver Creek, in Broadwater county. The pleadings are voluminous, and it seems unnecessary to recite them in detail.

It appears that the plaintiff claims a water right of one thousand inches, dated August 1, 1866, and that the defendant city of Helena claims six water rights appropriated during the year 1865. Five of these water rights may be designated as the agricultural rights, and one as the placer mining right. The five agricultural rights aggregate three hundred and twenty-eight inches of water, and the placer mining right is one thousand inches. All of these water rights were acquired by purchase. In 1892 a decree was entered in the district court of Jefferson county, wherein it was adjudged that the water rights now owned by the city of Helena were all prior in time to that of the plaintiff. The pleadings show that the city of Helena proposes to take the water which it has a right to use out of the basin or channel of Beaver creek, and convey it to the city of Helena for municipal purposes, and that, if the city carries out its intention, none of the said water will be available for agricultural purposes in the basin of Beaver creek. The defendants, other than the city of Helena, claim water rights in Beaver creek subsequent in time to those of the city, but they allege in their several answers that, after the waters were used by the predecessors in interest of the city, the same were allowed to return to the stream in such ■a manner as that the junior rights were supplied at some periods of the year, and that they, the junior claimants, .did, in fact acquire substantial rights in the water, which will be ■entirely lost to them if the city is allowed to take the water away from the basin of the creek. At the trial the city introduced evidence to show when, how, and in what quantities its [344]*344predecessors in interest had used both the so-called agricultural rights and the placer mining right. Counsel for.certain of the defendants, other than Elizabeth McMasters, after the taking of testimony was concluded in the court below, requested the court to make findings showing to what uses the water acquired by the city of Helena had been put prior to the acquisition thereof by the city, the extent of the use and the periods during each season when the water was used up to the time of sale of the rights to the city, and whether the junior appropriators acquired substantial rights in and to the waters covered by said appropriations, and whether such rights will be injuriously affected by the use of the water for municipal' purposes by the city of Helena.

The court, among other findings of fact, made the following:

“(7) That on the thirty-first day of March, 1865, the'city of Helena, and its predecessors in interest, diverted sixty-seven inches, being one and sixty-six one hundredths cubic feet per second, of the waters of Beaver creek, and appropriated the same for useful and beneficial purposes (being the same right decreed to Julia Reynolds as of said date in said decree), and ever since said date the said defendant and its predecessors in interest have continued to use the same for useful and beneficial purposes.

“(8) That on the first day of April, 1865, the said city of Helena and its predecessors in interest diverted one hundred and ninety-four inches, being four and eighty-five hundredths cubic feet per second, of the waters of Beaver creek, and appropriated the same for useful and beneficial purposes (being the same water right decreed, as of said date, to the defendants. George Beatty, Charles A. Fallen, and Andrew Thompson), and ever since said date have continued to use the same for useful and beneficial purposes.

“(9) That on the first day of October, 1865, the said city of Helena and its predecessors in interest, diverted sixty-seven inches, being one and sixty-six hundredths cubic feet per second, of the waters of Beaver creek, and appropriated the same [345]*345for useful and beneficial purposes (being the same water right decreed, as of said date, to W. R. Davies in said decree), and ever since said date have continued to use the same for useful and beneficial purposes.

“(10) That on the first day of October, 1865, the said city of Helena and its predecessors in interest diverted one thousand inches, being twenty-five cubic feet per second, of the waters of Beaver creek, and appropriated the same for useful and benefical purposes, through its French Bar ditch, extending from Beaver creek in Broadwater county (then Jefferson county), state of Montana, to French Bar on the Missouri river, in Lewis and Clark county, said state, beyond and without the watershed of said Beaver creek, and appropriated the same for-useful and beneficial purposes (being the same water right decreed, as of said date, to the Murray Placer Mining Company in said decree), and ever since said date have continued to use-the same through its French Bar ditch and by means of its. ditch known as the Beaver Creek Company ditch, or Indian creek ditch, which said ditch extends from Beaver creek, Broad-water county, state of Montana, to Indian creek, in said county, beyond and without the watershed of said Beaver creek, for-useful and beneficial purposes.”

The plaintiff and certain of the defendants, other than the city of Helena, were found to have water rights in Beaver-creek, all subsequent in time to those of the city, and in making-its findings of fact in relation to the rights of these defendants the court employed the same phraseology as that found in finding No. 7, just recited. No specific finding of fact was made-as to the particular uses to which the water had been put by-any of the parties to the action. Neither was there any finding-as to the periods of time during which the water had been used.

After reciting the findings of fact and conclusions of law,, the decree of the district court reads as follows:

“(1) That the defendant, the city of Helena, a municipal corporation, is the owner of and entitled to the use of one and sixty-six hundredths cubic feet per second of the waters o£ [346]*346Beaver creek and its tributaries, by virtue of an appropriation thereof on the thirty-first day of March, 1865, which said right is the first right in said waters and is prior to all the other rights hereinafter mentioned.

“ (2) That, subject to the preceding rights, the defendant the city of Helena, a municipal corporation, is the owner and entitled to the use of four and eighty-five hundredths cubic feet of the waters of Beaver creek and its tributaries, by virtue of an appropriation thereof on the first day of April, 1865, which said right is the second right in said waters and prior to all other rights hereinafter mentioned.

“(3) That, subject to the preceding rights, the defendant, the city of Helena, a municipal corporation, is the owner of and entitled to the use of one and sixty-six one hundredths cubic feet per second of the waters of Beaver creek and its tributaries, by virtue of an appropriation thereof on the first day of October, 1865, which said right is the third right in said waters and prior to all other rights hereinafter mentioned.

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Spokane Ranch & Water Co. v. Beatty
96 P. 727 (Montana Supreme Court, 1908)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
96 P. 727, 37 Mont. 342, 1908 Mont. LEXIS 61, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spokane-ranch-water-co-v-beatty-mont-1908.