Colegrove Water Co. v. City of Hollywood

SLOSS, J.

This action, brought to obtain an injunction restraining the defendants, the city of Hollywood and its superintendent of streets, from interfering with plaintiff in its efforts to lay pipes across two streets of said city, resulted in a judgment granting to plaintiff the relief sought.

A motion for a new trial, made by the defendants enjoined, was denied. Said defendants appeal from the judgment and from the order denying their motion for a new trial.

The general nature of the case is shown by the following facts found by the court: The plaintiff is a corporation organized under the laws of the state of California for the purpose of supplying water for domestic and other purposes. The defendant the city of Hollywood is a municipal corporation of the sixth class, having been organized as such in November, 1903. Prior to 1898, and up to the fifth day of December, 1904, Cornelia Cole McLaughlin was the owner of certain land. On said fifth day of December she sold it to plaintiff, which has since said date been the owner thereof. Said land is bounded on the west by a street known as Gower Street, covering a strip fifty feet wide, which had been, in 1877, conveyed to the county of Los Angeles, by the then owners of the land, for a road. To the west of Gower Street is a piece of land owned by the 'defendant Cornelius Cole. South of the last-mentioned tract is other land owned by said Cornelius Cole-, the two pieces last named being separated by a strip of land dedicated by said Cole, the owner thereof, as a highway, and known as Wilson Avenue. All of said lands and streets are now within

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the limits of the city of Hollywood. The fee of said Gower Street belongs, as to the east half thereof, to plaintiff, and as to the west half, to the defendant Cole.

All of the land above described, except that embraced in the streets, is planted to lemon trees and requires irrigation. In the year 1898 said Cornelia Cole McLaughlin sunk a well upon the premises owned by her and established a pumping plant-capable of pumping five thousand gallons of water an hour. The water from said well has been conducted by means of conduits, pipes, and ditches to the orchards above described, and to an additional lemon orchard situated south of the land of Cornelius Cole, and outside of the limits of the city of Hollywood. In order to conduct the water to the lands requiring irrigation a wooden box or culvert was, in the year 1898, placed beneath the surface of Gower Street, so as not to obstruct travel thereon, and said box or culvert was maintained therein and used until about two years before the trial, when it was replaced by an iron pipe, which has'since said time been retained therein. In the year 1898, a wooden structure, having a top and sides, was placed across Wilson Avenue in order to conduct the water across said avenue to the lands of Cornelius Cole south of said Wilson Avenue,. and to the other lands irrigated from the well. Where said ditches and conduits were located upon the lands of Cornelius Cole, they were so located and maintained thereon, with his knowledge and consent. The plaintiff is the successor to all the interest of Cornelia Cole McLaughlin in said ditches, boxes, pipes, etc., and to the consent of Cole to their location and use upon his land. Paragraph XXI of the findings declares that prior to the commencement of this action the plaintiff, “for the improvement and betterment of its water plant,” undertook to lay “iron pipe to take the place of all said ditches, box or culvert, wooden structure and iron pipe,” and while engaged in excavating Gower Street and Wilson Avenue, for the purpose of laying said iron pipes in said streets, was stopped and prevented, from so doing by the city of Hollywood, and the defendant Pry, its superintendent of streets. The plaintiff had, prior' to such interference, given the defendants notice of its intention to do the work, and had given the city a bond conditioned for the payment of all damages occasioned by doing such work.