Farmers' Co-operative Ditch Co. v. Riverside Irrigation District, Ltd.
Farmers' Co-operative Ditch Co. v. Riverside Irrigation District, Ltd.
Opinion of the Court
This action was instituted by the Farmers’ Co-operative Ditch Company against numerous appropriators of water from the Boise river, for the purpose of adjudicating the priorities among the several appropriators. The complaint was filed on August 20, 1902. The defendants answered and also filed cross-complaints setting up their several rights, appropriations and priorities, and asking for affirmative relief decreeing their several appropriations and
The first contention urged by the appellant is that the court erred in not finding as to all of the individual users of water under the various ditches and canals, and the amount of water used by each and necessarily required for the irrigation of his land, and the particular description of the land upon which he was using and entitled to use water. In support of this contention, counsel relies on sec. 38 of the act of March 11, 1903. That section, among other things, provides that the decree of the court shall be according to the rights and priorities of those using the waters, and shall be made to the use to which such water is beneficially applied, and that when once decreed, the right shall become appurtenant to the land and become a part of the land, and that the ‘ ‘ decree shall describe the land to which such water shall become so appurtenant.” To our minds there are several reasons why the appellant’s contention is not well taken here. In the first place, the appellant never raised this question in the trial court, and has never presented the same to the trial court,, but, on the contrary, invited tlfe error, if indeed it be error. The court in every instance has described the lands either in the exact language of the complaint or cross-complaint, or by
The question is also presented here as to whether sec. 38 of the act of March 11, 1903, is applicable to water users who have no right by appropriation, but whose right is founded upon one of use and is purely a rental right as distinguished from a right by appropriation and diversion. This action was originally instituted to determine the respective rights and priorities among the various appropriators and diverters of the waters of the Boise river, and the plaintiff only made such parties defendants as had constructed ditches and diverted water from the stream. As to some of those ditches the appropriators were also the users of the water; they owned the water right and used the water on their own lands. Others were co-operative ditch companies where a number of water users had joined together and constructed a ditch, each one owning a number of shares in the company which entitled him to a proportionate amount of the water of the canal; while by still other ditches the waters were appropriated and diverted, not for the immediate use of the ditch owners, but for the purpose of sale, rental and distribution. l'Whatever the differences may be in the facts with reference
In paragraph 3 of the findings of fact, the court made a general finding as to the quantity of water required for the successful irrigation of the lands irrigated from the Boise river. It found that “for bench lands 1 inch per acre” is necessary, and that “for bottom lands 1-1/10 inch per acre” is necessary. The appellant assigns this finding as error on the ground that the court has not described the lands he terms bench lands and those he terms bottom lands. The appellant is in no position on this appeal to question the finding for the following reason: This finding No. 3 is merely a finding of the basis on which the court has concluded to apportion the water; the quantity of water per acre he intended to allow the several appropriators. “When the court came to making the specific findings as to the number of inches of water each
Again, complaint is made by the appellant of the action of the court in apportioning among the various parties to the action the expense of making the survey and maps and plats by the state engineer, which amounted to $10,804.60, and the “expense incurred in preparing findings and decrees herein and in filing and recording the same in the counties of Ada and Canyon,” which amounted to the sum of $468.66. This total sum of $11,273.26 the court “apportioned to the several parties in the proportion as water is herein allotted to them.” Appellant complains of this principally upon the grounds that no cost-bill was filed, contending that under the provisions of sec. 4912, Rev. Stat., as amended, it was entitled to have a cost-bill served on it and the opportunity of opposing or resisting the taxation of the whole or any part thereof. In Boise Irrigation & Land Co. v. Stewart, 10 Ida. 38, 77 Pac. 25, 321, this court sustained the right and power of the district judge to order the surveys, and also held that the cost thereof would be properly apportioned to the several parties to the action, and that each would have the right to contest the whole or any part thereof. A party dissatisfied with any part of the expense of this survey that was
There was no error in the action of the court in this respect. The judgment should'be affirmed, and it is so ordered. Costs awarded in favor of respondents.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- FARMERS' CO-OPERATIVE DITCH COMPANY, a Corporation, and v. RIVERSIDE IRRIGATION DISTRICT, LTD., and Respondents NAMPA & MERIDIAN IRRIGATION DISTRICT, and
- Cited By
- 17 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Irrigation — Action to Establish Priorities or Appropriation — Description op Lands to be Irrigated — Parties Dependant — Survey and Maps by State Engineer — Apportionment op Cost op Survey and Maps. 1. “Where a defendant in a -water suit, brought for the purpose of determining priorities of appropriators, answers the complaint and also files a cross-complaint in which he sets up his claim to a certain quantity of the waters of the stream and pleads the facts entitling him to a decree establishing his rights, and he raises no objection to the insufficiency of description of the lands to be irrigated as contained in the complaint, and in no way calls the matter to the attention of the trial court, and a decree is entered describing the lands to be irrigated both by the plaintiff and the defendants and all the parties to the action, in the language of the complaint and the cross-complaints, any insufficiency, error or defect in the description must be first raised in the trial court and called to-the attention of the court entering the deeree before it can be con-sideied on appeal, and in case of appeal any error assigned by the appellant in reference to such defective or insufficient description will he held to have been participated in and invited by the appellant, and he will not be allowed a reversal of the judgment on account thereof. 2. In a suit between the appropriators of the waters of a stream involving the rights and priorities of the several appropriators, the users and consumers of water under a canal that has appropriated water for the purpose of sale, rental or distribution are not necessary and indispensable parties to the action, and a decree in such case is valid and binding as between all the parties to the action. 3. A water company or corporation may appropriate and divert the waters of a stream for the purpose of sale, rental or distribution, for any beneficial use or purpose, and in such ease the appropriation belongs to the ditch company with a perpetual right of use vested in the users and consumers to whom the water has once been delivered, and such perpetual right so vested in the user or consumer can only be defeated by failure to pay the annual water rents and comply with lawful requirements in relation to the use. 4. Where the court, under see. 37, act of March 11, 1903, orders a survey by the state engineer of the ditches and canals diverting water from a stream, and of the irrigable lands thereunder, and of those to which water has been applied, and the making of maps thereof, the cost of such survey is properly chargeable to the several litigants in the ease in proportion to the quantity of water allotted to each. In such ease, it is proper for the court to make the apportionment and order judgment against each according to the amount properly apportioned to such litigant, and it is unnecessary for anyone to file a cost-bill covering such item of expense. 5. Id. — Sec. 4912, Dev. Stat., as amended, providing for the filing of a cost-bill, does not cover or include such item of expenditure, and it is not error for the court to enter judgment against the several defendants for such costs without requiring a cost-bill to be filed therefor. (Syllabus by the court.)