Valley Cattle Company v. United States

258 F. Supp. 12, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6697
CourtDistrict Court, D. Hawaii
DecidedJuly 26, 1966
DocketCiv. 2267
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 258 F. Supp. 12 (Valley Cattle Company v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Hawaii primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Valley Cattle Company v. United States, 258 F. Supp. 12, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6697 (D. Haw. 1966).

Opinion

DECISION

PENCE, Chief Judge.

Unless clearly stated otherwise herein, the following are the court’s findings of facts and conclusions of law:

At all times pertinent to its claims of injury, the Valley Cattle Company was operating a calf farm and riding stables (known as “Saddle City”) on leased property immediately mauka a of Bellows Field, a military airport of the defendant United States of America. Coming down from the mountains and converging on defendant’s land at a point immediately makai b of plaintiff’s property are the Waimanalo Stream and Kahawai Stream, as well as certain other drainage ditches. The conjoined waters then flow down to the sea through Bellows Field. The drainage basin as it affects the plaintiff here would resemble a champagne glass vertically sliced in half, with the stem of the glass being the stream bed through Bellows Field, running into the sea, the base of the glass.

On the south and west rim of the glass lie the preciptious Koolau Mountains and these are joined on the northwest and north by the Aneanenui Bidge, likewise steep though not as high.

In the lower end of this natural “bowl”, the plaintiff built its calf pens and, having contracted for the sale of dairy heifer calves, set up its calf-raising operation. Plaintiff built its calf pens where it did because the stables and road to the same from the highway were already in place, and the pens were, built immediately makai and below the stables. As the pictures and the drain *14 age survey clearly indicate, the calf pens were placed in one of the lowest areas of plaintiff’s leased property — the ground between the pens and the streams’ confluence is higher than the pen area. Also, an old abandoned railroad right of way immediately makai of the pens is much higher than the pen area, and lying as they were between the right of way on the south and the higher ground on the west and east, the pens were thus in a low pocket. (This railroad right of way, as the maps and pictures indicate, forms a barrier which itself hinders the free flow of surface water from the pen area into the conjoined Waimanalo and Kahawai Streams, and water, which but for the right of way would normally flow from the west, is, instead, pushed north and into the small unnamed drainage stream indicated on the maps as lying north of the pens.) Plaintiff, apparently unknowingly, had a built-in inundation or flooding factor for its calf-raising operation from its very inception. The pen area at its highest point (alongside the stable) was but 9.2 feet above sea level and at its lowest was 6.7 feet above sea level. The stream banks at the confluence were respectively 5.4 feet and 5.8 feet above sea level.

On the mauka end of the “stem” of the glass, and on defendant’s property, was a wooden bridge identified as B2. Going downstream between that bridge and the sea were two concrete culverts. C2 and Cl, and, almost at the sea, another wooden bridge, Bl. Immediately mauka of B2, and running along the “bottom” of the “glass” is a high reach of ground which forces all waters collecting above into the stem at a point immediately above the bridge B2. Bridge ■B2, as well as culverts C2 and Cl, were built by the United States during the éonstruction of Bellows Field, circa 1940-41. Bridge B2, over-reaching the banks, on wooden piles, was some 12 feet above the stream bed, and the stream bed at that point was 2 feet above sea level. The culverts below B2, i. e., C2 and Cl, are 8 cell, 6’ x 6' concrete box culverts.

It was the practice of Bellows Field to clean the stream through Bellows of grass and water hyacinths before the onset of the normally heavier winter rains. Not seeing this done, in October 1962, Gibson, president and manager of plaintiff, spoke to Major Merrill, commander of Bellows Field, concerning this. Nothing was done however.

On January 6, 1963, rain in the general area started sometime in the late evening and grew heavier during the night. At 5:45 A.M. on January 7, when Gibson arrived at the stables, the water was already some 3 feet deep in the lower end of the pens and some calves had already drowned. Steps were immediately taken to move all calves still alive out of the inundated area. About 6:30 A.M. Gibson called Major Merrill concerning the high water, and saw Merrill at 8.30 A.M. About 7:30 A.M., Merrill contacted Hickam Air Force Base and Kaneohe Air Force Base for heavy cranes to clean the stream through Bellows and these were at work by that afternoon. The stream beds were filled with water hyacinths and pictures in evidence show water hyacinths blocking free passage of the water through the culverts. At one time during the morning, Bellows Field firemen used pike poles to free the water hyacinths from the culvert cell division walls at the upstream side.

The pictures show heavy masses of water hyacinths in the stream, not only floating on the water but also scooped out and piled up by the military cranes on the culverts after the storm. The heavy vegetation in the stream bed, where it passed through Bellows Field, unquestionably obstructed the flow of water down the stream and through the culverts and was a material and proximate cause of the inundation of the plaintiff’s pens on January 7, 1963.

*15 In the three weeks following January 7, the Military Engineers cleaned and dug out the stream from the makai side of bridge B2 to the mouth. They did not dig out any area under the bridge nor did they, during this period, clean out the stream bed mauka of B2. B1 had no effect on any flow.

On the night of March 5-6, 1963, it rained, and on March 6 about 8:00 A.M., the rain began falling heavily in the Waimanalo area. The rain mauka of the plaintiff’s pens, according to Gibson, was intense. Although the water started to back up before that time, Gibson was not concerned because of the work which he had seen done by the Military Engineers on the stream below the bridge. About 9:00 A.M., the runoff from the mauka area suddenly flowed over the stables and pen area some 3 to 4 inches deep, and within 30-45 minutes the water was up to the stables. By 10:00 A.M. there was 3 feet of water in the stables. By evening, however, the water had drained off.

This inundation of March 6 killed more calves than in January. Because the plaintiff could not supply calves as demanded under a contract for the same, it lost the contract and was forced out of the calf farming business.

By agreement, the first portion of this trial was limited to determination of the question of liability, the problem of damages being reserved

Plaintiff claims that the inundation of its pens on each occasion was proximately caused (1) by the failure of the United States to fulfill its duty to keep the stream beds free and clear of all vegetation; (2) because the culverts were so negligently designed that they could not take the stream flow which the United States should have anticipated would occur; and (3) that bridge B2 was allowed to get into such, a state of disrepair that it blocked the flow of water.

The United States has moved to dismiss on the basis that the evidence shows that the plaintiff’s claimed damage arose out of flooding of its property and therefore 33 U.S.C.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
258 F. Supp. 12, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6697, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/valley-cattle-company-v-united-states-hid-1966.