Jenison v. Redfield

ANGELLOTI, J.

This is an action for damages alleged to have been suffered by plaintiff, a landowner of Walnut Irrigation District, by reason of the failure and refusal of defendants, directors of said district, to distribute and apportion to him his proportion of the water of said district. Defendants had judgment, and plaintiff appeals from such judgment, and also from an order denying his motion for a new trial. »

Walnut Irrigation District is a public corporation organized under what is known as the Wright Act (Stats. 1887, p. 29) and the acts supplementary thereto. (See act of 1897, Stats. 1897, p. 254.) Plaintiff is the owner of thirty-eight acres of land within the boundaries of said district, assessed on the last assessment of the property of the district at four thousand one hundred dollars, and is also an assignee of the right to the water of one J. H. Burke, who owns thirty acres in said district, assessed at three thousand dollars. The total assessed value of the property of the district was $94,450. Under the provision of the statute that “all waters distributed for irrigation purposes shall be apportioned ratably to each landowner upon the basis of the ratio which the last assessment of such owner for district purposes within said district bears to the whole sum assessed upon the district; provided, that any landowner may assign the right to the whole or any portion of the waters so apportioned to him” (sec. 18 of act of 1897, Stats. 1897, p. 259), plaintiff, as owner and assignee of Burke, was entitled to 7100-94450 of the waters of the district distributed for irrigation purposes.

It appears that plaintiff owned considerable land outside of said district, upon which he had planted alfalfa and walnuts, and the real question presented by this case is as to whether he was entitled to receive from defendants any portion of his share of water for use upon said land without the boundaries of the district. There is no pretense that he was ever denied water for use upon such of his land as was within the district, and unless he was entitled to have the water to the extent of

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his share for the sole purpose of carrying the same beyond the limits of the district and irrigating lands outside thereof, the defendants in no respect failed or refused to apportion and distribute to him any water to which he was entitled. All the damage alleged—viz. nine hundred dollars—was damage arising by reason of the failure to have the water on land lying outside of the district. The trial court found that the defendants had not failed or refused to deliver any water to which he was entitled, and refused to admit evidence as to damage to plaintiff’s land lying outside of the district by reason of lack of water, and these rulings present for determination the question already stated.