Trujillo & Mercado v. Succession of Rodríguez
Trujillo & Mercado v. Succession of Rodríguez
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court..
The appellant firm begun a suit for injunction against the defendant succession to prevent the latter from using the waters of the river Guayanilla. The trial was originally had before a former judge of the District Court of Ponce but the written proofs and exhibits were, by the stipulation of the parties, submitted to Mr. Justice Sepulveda, the present judge of Ponce, who denied the injunction. There is no real conflict over the facts.
The Executive Council, as we have seen, in granting the concession to Blas Rodriguez did so without prejudice to the greater rights of anyone else. Similarly, the Executive Council in granting the right to the complainant to take 183% liters per second did so without prejudice to the relative rights of the applicants or of Blas Rodriguez, or any other persons, to take water from the Guayanilla River, the determination of such relative rights to be arrived at between the parties concerned or by the cour.ts.
In view of the foregoing facts, the court below drew attention to the character of the proof of the complainant, namely, that its original concession was not proved, but only secondary proof, indicating the existence of a right to take water from the river Guayanilla, was presented. The complainant did, in fact, introduce various exhibits and some testimony to show that it or its predecessors in title had a right to take water from the river Guayanilla, beginning perhaps as far back as the year 1843, but nowhere in the proof'is there any clear indication of the quantity of water to which the complainant was entitled. The evidence showed that at various times the predecessors of the complainant had recourse to the administrative authorities to settle some question between themselves and other persons as to the right to take water from the river. The appellant points out as the strongest bit of proof that along about 1873 the administrative authorities, at the petition of the then owner of “Rufina” and the then owner of “Faro” and “San Colombano,” the three farms
We think the appellants utterly failed to establish an exclusive right to the waters of the river Guayanilla or that they proved anything more than that they had been conceded a right to take water from such river. Under such state of facts, the Law of Waters, section 152, makes it clear that it is necessary for a grantee of waters to have the quantity of water which he is entitled to take fixed by the administrative authorities, formerly the Minister of the Colonies, now the Executive Council; but, as we have seen, the Executive Council in making the concession to the complainant expressly refused to determine the right of the complainant but granted the concession to take 1831/2 liters per second upon the theory that the complainant might have certain
The burden of proof was upon the complainant and it failed to establish the amount of wa|er which it was entitled to take or that it had an exclusive right to such water. There is a good deal of discussion in the briefs as to the character of the proofs necessary in a suit for injunction. We need not enter into a consideration of how much proof is necessary in a suit for injunction further than to say that in order to issue a permanent injunction the proof of a right must be clear, but it is also true that in an ejectment suit the complainant must show a clear right, and we find that the complainant has not shown such clear right either for the purposes of an injunction suit or for the purposes of an ordinary suit.
Furthermore, the proof showed that the failure to obtain 183% liters per second at complainant’s point of intake had comparatively little connection with the intake by the respondent,- and that by running its canal higher up the complainant would be able to take the entire 183% liters per second. We think that where a.defendant is shown to have "been conceded a right to take a ■ certain .amount of - water higher up the stream, such right cannot be enjoined by a more or less indefinite right to take water lower down the stream when the proof shows that the whole amount conceded hy the administrative authorities can be obtained by extending the canal of the complainant. The right was given to the complainant to take 183% liters per second from the river Gruayanilla and the respondent cannot be enjoined in any event where the proof shows -that the complainant can obtain such amount, although at some cost, at a point higher up. There is considerable discussion in the briefs over the rights of the complainant by prescription, but such discus
The Executive Council made concessions to each of the parties, and, if there is any substantial conflict between them, such conflict was or should be settled by the Executive Council administratively. The court cannot give origin to the right. It must pass upon fixed rights.
The judgment must be
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.