Muscoy Mutual Water Co. v. Enloe

[567]

MUSSELL, J.

In this action for an injunction, the plaintiff, a mutual water company, obtained a judgment enjoining the defendant from interfering with its distribution system, pipe lines, gate valves and its distribution of water to shareholders.

The defendant, by virtue of an agreement to purchase, took possession of approximately two acres of land in the area served by the company on the 15th day of June, 1945. Defendant’s agreement to purchase the land also included a contract to buy two shares of stock then owned by the vendor and his wife. Plaintiff furnished water to defendant until May 5, 1947, on which date the company ceased to furnish water to him and to others who were not shareholders and closed the gate valve through which defendant had theretofore obtained water. On June 6, 1947, approximately 31 days later, the defendant constructed a concrete box over the gate valve, turned the water on and has received water through the company’s system continuously ever since.

The trial court found that plaintiff company was organized for the purpose of supplying water “to and for its stockholders only”; that on December 14, 1945, plaintiff and its shareholders adopted amended by-laws which provide that “no water belonging to said corporation shall be furnished or sold except to the shareholders thereof and that no stockholder shall sell any water furnished or delivered to or received by him from said corporation to any other person or for use upon any other premises than those specified in his application for such water”; that on May 31, 1946, plaintiff, in writing, requested defendant to inform plaintiff “by what right he had theretofore received and was then receiving water from said corporation,” as well as to inform plaintiff “respecting the number of shares of said corporation issued to him” to which request the defendant made no reply; that although requested so to do defendant since February, 1946, refused to inform plaintiff “whether any shares thereof had been issued to him” or to inform plaintiff “by what right he had received or was receiving water from said corporation”; that on the 12th day of March, 1947, plaintiff served upon defendant a written notice that defendant “did not appear on the records thereof to be a shareholder and that upon the expiration of thirty days from the date thereof said corporation would discontinue the delivery of water” unless defendant “became a shareholder of said corporation prior to said