Reclamation District No. 108 v. West

GRAY, C.

This action was brought to compel the defendant to pay assessment No. 16, levied on his land in 1896, for reclamation purposes. Plaintiff had judgment declaring the amount of the assessment to he a lien on said land and direct

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ing that the same be sold to satisfy said lien and costs. From this judgment and from an order denying him a new trial the defendant appeals.

The reclamation district, plaintiff, was formed in 1870, and embraces some seventy thousand acres of land lying to the west of the Sacramento river in Yolo and Colusa counties, and extending from Knight’s Landing up said river about eighteen miles in length, and of an average width of about six miles. The lands of the district lie in the form of a basin, and about all of them are subject to overflow, in the season of high water, from the Sacramento river on the east. The lower half of the district is generally subject to inundation during the cropping season from streams having their sources in the mountains to the west and northwest. The reclamation works of the plaintiff, as originally planned and constructed, consist of a levee on or near the eastern boundary of the district, and bulkheads in the sloughs where they connect with the Sacramento river. Said works along the river have the effect to protect the lands of the district from the waters of that stream, but there is no protection from the waters on the other side, and no plans have been adopted by the' district to reclaim its lands from such waters. Sixteen assessments have been levied during the history of the district—all of them for the construction and maintenance of the existing system of works. The land of defendant consists of four hundred and seventy-three acres lying in the basin below the thirty-foot contour line, and is a part of the thirty-five thousand acres subject to overflow from the streams mentioned as having their sources in the mountains to the west and northwest. It is of first-class quality, and would be exceedingly productive if the water were kept off; but owing to the fact that it has been inundated during the cropping season of almost every year since the organization of the district, it has produced little or nothing. The findings show, and it seems to be conceded, that the present system of reclamation works is inadequate to reclaim the lands of defendant or any other lands lying below the thirty-foot contour line. Said system is adequate, however, to reclaim all those lands that need reclaiming above said line. The assessment here in controversy was levied for the purpose of defraying the expense of re