Windsor Reservoir & Canal Co. v. Lake Supply Ditch Co.

44 Colo. 214
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedApril 15, 1908
DocketNo. 5646
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 44 Colo. 214 (Windsor Reservoir & Canal Co. v. Lake Supply Ditch Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Windsor Reservoir & Canal Co. v. Lake Supply Ditch Co., 44 Colo. 214 (Colo. 1908).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Campbell

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is a joint appeal by three separate corporations from certain subdivisions of the general decree under the appropriate statute establishing the relative priorities of rights to store water in reservoirs in water district No. 8.

1. Two of the numerous appellees say that assigned errors’ which concern two or more appellants severally may not be reviewed, because the statute granting appeals allows a joint appeal only when all the appellants “are affected in common with each other by some portion of said decree.” — Session Laws 1881, p. 156, §27 (§2427, Mill?’. Ann. Stats.). [216]*216Appellees may be correct in tbeir statement that some of the questions which appellants ask to have •reviewed do not affect all appellants in common; but at least one or more do concern all of them alike. Possibly — but we do not so decide — a strict construction of the language above quoted from the statute might prevent appellants from insisting on the assignments of error to which objection is made. The record, however, discloses that practically all the parties to this proceeding whose rights were adjudicated below are here, either as appellants or appellees, and that the two appellees who interpose this objection by cross-errors, themselves present* and in their briefs argue, some of the questions which they say appellants are precluded from pressing for decision.

This statute enjoins upon the courts a liberal construction of its provisions, to' the end that all persons may secure the just determination and protection of their rights. — Session Laws 1881, p. 155, §24 (§2423, Mills’ Ann. Stats.). These things considered, and appellate practice permitting this court,in its discretion, to notice errors appearing of record which, because of their failure to comply with the statute or the rules of court, the parties themselves may not urge, we have concluded that it will be to the public interest, save costs to the parties and avoid protracted litigation, to settle on this review the various questions presented by the record which are within the issues the act has in view and which affect substantially the integrity of the various provisions of the decree, to the end that it may, so far as practicable, be harmonious and just to all the parties.

2. The act under which this adjudication was made enjoins on the court the duty of hearing evi-' dence in support of the respective priority claimants, and thereupon entering a decree establishing the [217]*217relative priorities of right of. appropriation of water of the several reservoirs in the water district, each according to the time of its construction, and to the extent of its capacity. — Session Laws of 1881, p. 144, § 4 et al.; Mills’ Ann. Stats., § 2403. Before a decree in favor of any reservoir is entered, it should therefore he made to appear, inter alia, that thereby an appropriation of a certain quantity of water has been made. Both the constitution .and statute recognize the maxim, “first in time, first in right”; and it has been repeatedly decided in this jurisdiction that an appropriation consists of an actual diversion of water from a natural stream, followed within a reasonable time thereafter by an application thereof to- some beneficial use.

Keeping in mind the foregoing,, we proceed, first, to discuss that. subdivision of the general decree which relates to Douglass lake or reservoir. One of the appellees, The North Poudre Irrigation Company, on September 10j 1901, began its construction, and in its sworn statement claimed a priority therefor as of that date. A portion of the site of this reservoir is in the bed of Dry creek, and the work of construction consisted in throwing up embankments across and alongside the creek. They were substantially finished by appellee in the summer of 1902. In the spring or summer of 1903, appellee contracted to sell the site to one of the appellants, The Poudre Valley Reservoir Company, and thereafter, about March, 1904, the deed to the same was executed, reserving, however, to the grantor, any priority or appropriation which it had theretofore made by reason of its construction work. The court found that appellee thereby had perfected an appropriation before the sale of the site, which sale was several months before the decree was entered, and rendered a decree awarding to appellee [218]*218priority No. 50, by reason of its construction'of the Douglass reservoir, as of date September 10, 1901, for 460,000,000 cubic feet of water; and, as it appeared that appellee had conveyed to appellant, The Poudre Valley Reservoir Company, the Douglass site, and that appellee owned other reservoirs numbered 5, 6, 7 and 9, in the same water district, which had' a■ capacity for storing the ■ amount awarded to appellee for the Douglass reservoir, the court permitted appellee to transfer and store in these reservoirs the .amount of the Douglass priority. At the same time, and in another part of the same decree, it awarded to appellant, The Poudre Valley Reservoir Company, priority No. 51, five days later, by reason of its construction of the Douglass reservoir, of precisely the same capacity which had been awarded to appellee.

It is the contention of appellants that, under the undisputed evidence, no priority should have been awarded to appellee, the original owner and builder in part of the Douglass reservoir, as the result of such partial construction, because appellee had not then, and never has, perfected an appropriation. There was no finding of fact by the referee or court that appellee ever perfected its appropriation of water for storing in Douglass reservoir, and the record would not justify such finding. Appellee substantially completed the banks, but not the entire work, on the reservoir, and the evidence leaves it uncertain whether, by means of ditches or otherwise, it ever connected the reservoir with the claimed sources of supply; but, if it did, certainly it never turned water into the reservoir, except such as naturally flowed into it from Dry creek or Park creek, of which no use was ever made.

Turning to its sworn statement of claim, we find [219]*219that its designated sources of supply for filling the reservoir were Park, or Dry, creek, and hy means of the North Fork ditch out of the North Fork of the Cache la Poudre river, a large portion of which water was to he diverted into the North Fork ditch, hy a system of exchanges, in lieu of water-which appellee had stored in its Fossil creek reservoir, farther down the valley.

From this statement it also appears that of the 460,000,000 cuhie feet, the total capacity claimed for the reservoir, 430,000,000 feet were to he received hy means of the proposed system of exchanges, which, so far as we can ascertain from the evidence, appellee has not yet put into operation, even if it has the facilities for doing so. In short, the only completed appliance that appellee seems to have with which to impound water consists of its dam across the' bed of Dry creek, which intercepts the waters that naturally flow in its channel.

Appellee does not seriously contend that it actually diverted from these ■ sources of supply, or filled Douglass reservoir, or used water therefrom, before it sold and conveyed its site to appellant. Nevertheless, it claims a perfected appropriation prior thereto as the result of its construction work. By an ingenious argument it seeks to uphold this claim. The year 1902, appellee says, was a dry year.

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Bluebook (online)
44 Colo. 214, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/windsor-reservoir-canal-co-v-lake-supply-ditch-co-colo-1908.