Dankert v. Oroville-Wyandotte Irrigation District

THE COURT.

Application for a writ of

mandamus.

The recitation of facts is taken from the petition:

Bespondent Oroville-Wyandotte Irrigation District is now and since July 8, 1919, has been a public corporation and irrigation district organized under the laws of this state

[88]

for the purpose of providing water for the irrigation of certain lands situate in the county of Butte. Said district is not subject to the regulatory powers of the state Railroad Commission.

(Henderson

v.

Oroville-Wyandotte Irr. Dist.,

207 Cal. 215 [277 Pac. 487].) There also existed in the immediate vicinity of respondent district two other public utilities, to wit, Palermo Land and Water Company and South Feather Land and Water Company, organized for the purpose of distributing for sale water to lands within their said districts. Our concern is with the Palermo Company and not with the South Feather Company. Petitioner Charles Dankert is the owner of lands within said Palermo Land and Water Company’s boundaries. These last-named utilities were under the regulatory power of the state Railroad Commission, and the owners thereof could not sell said systems or plants without first having secured from the Railroad Commission an order authorizing them to do so. (Sec. 51a, Public Utilities Act [Stats. 1915, p. 149].) Both of said public utilities, therefore, applied to the Railroad Commission in 1922 for authority to sell their respective plants to said Oroville-Wyandotte Irrigation District, the latter district joining in said applications as purchaser. The applicants alleged in their petitions that said transfers would benefit the public and would result in an increased and more dependable water supply for the area served and would provide irrigation service to a larger area than was then served at probably a lower cost. The purchase price, to wit, $200,000, to be paid to each of the selling utilities by the respondent, was mutually agreed upon by the respective parties. Hearings were accordingly held as provided by law. The district’s boundaries originally contemplated the inclusion of the lands then served by the two utilities, but as only a few of the owners of such lands expressed a desire to join the proposed district a revision of the boundaries was made excluding the lands of those water users who did not elect to join the district. At the first hearing held by the commission eighty-two of the water users of the Palermo Company, who had not joined the district, including petitioner, protested against the transfer, alleging that if the authority to transfer was granted they would be without the jurisdiction of the Railroad Commission and consequently