Wehrle v. Board of Water & Power Commissioners

WASTE, C. J.

Plaintiff, as a taxpayer, brought this action to enjoin the Board of Water and Power Commissioners of the City of Los Angeles from carrying out a proposed plan to acquire by purchase three thousand one hundred privately owned properties in the towns of Lone Pine, Independence, Big Pine and Bishop in the Owens River Valley in Inyo County. The complaint was demurred to on general and special grounds, and the demurrer was sustained with leave to amend. The plaintiff declining to amend, judgment of dismissal followed, from which judgment plaintiff appeals.

It is alleged in the complaint that, after a detailed survey and appraisement of the properties involved, the Board of Water and Power Commissioners 1 ‘ arbitrarily, recklessly, improvidently, injudiciously, and unlawfully increased said appraised values by adding to the values so determined for each separate piece of privately owned property,” in three of the locations named, certain percentages of value, making a total of $5,696,334 instead of $4,521,736.58, as originally fixed by the survey , and appraisement, and that the eommis

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sion is proceeding to acquire the properties according to such increased valuations. A judgment is sought enjoining and restraining the Board of Water and Power Commissioners from purchasing or offering to purchase the properties in accordance with the adjusted prices referred to in the com-plant, “or otherwise,” and restraining the other defendants, who are officers of the city of Los Angeles, from carrying out certain designated details of the purchase.

The demurrer was properly sustained. The defendant Board of Water and Power Commissioners of the City of Los Angeles is a board duly organized pursuant to the provisions of the charter of that city, and has the management, charge, and control of the department of water and power of the city. In particular, the board has the management, charge and control of what is known as the Los Angeles aqueduct, by means of which waters within the Owens River watershed in Inyo and Mono Counties in this state are conveyed approximately 240 miles from a point in the Owens River Valley to the city of Los Angeles for domestic, industrial and other uses by the city and its inhabitants. These waters, consisting of the natural flow of the Owens River and of the underground waters already developed by the board by pumping operations at various points in the Owens River Valley, are regarded not only as of great importance, but almost of necessity in the development of the water supply of the city, and it is essential that its acquisition of the water rights in the valley be not interfered with.