San Bernardino Valley Munipal Water District v. West Riverside 350 Inch Water Co.

STONE, J.* Plaintiff-Respondent, a municipal water district, commenced a condemnation action in the Superior Court of San Bernardino County against Defendant-Appellant, a water company. Appellant moved for a change of venue upon the ground that Code of Civil Procedure section 170, subdivision 6, disqualifies the San Bernardino County judges. The pertinent part of that section reads as follows:

“No justice or judge shall sit or act as such in any action or proceeding:...

“6. Certain public works. In an action or proceeding brought in any court by or against the Reclamation Board of [146]the State of California, or any irrigation, reclamation, levee, swampland or drainage district, or any public agency, or trustee, officer or employee thereof, affecting or relating to any real property, ...”

Although municipal water districts are not specifically mentioned in subdivision 6 of section 170, appellant contends that such districts come within the purview of the words “public agency.” This argument is predicated upon the reasoning of the court in Lindsay-Strathmore Irr. Dist. v. Superior Court, 182 Cal. 315 [187 P. 1056]. At the time the Lindsay-Strathmore decision came down, irrigation districts were not specifically mentioned in Code of Civil Procedure section 170. The court held, nevertheless, that an irrigation district was a “public agency” as that term was then used in Code of Civil Procedure section 170. By applying the principle of ejusdem generis, the Supreme Court reasoned that an irrigation district was comparable to the Reclamation Board of the State of California, or a reclamation, levee, swampland or drainage district, since the purpose of the named agencies and that of an irrigation district is to reclaim land.

Appellant argues persuasively that the rationale of the Lindsay-Strathmore case brings municipal water districts within the purview of section 170, subdivision 6. However, this very question was determined adversely to appellant’s position by the Supreme Court in Metropolitan Water Dist. v. Superior Court, 2 Cal.2d 4 [37 P.2d 1041]. In that case the Riverside County judges deemed themselves disqualified from hearing a matter involving The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a municipal corporation. As in our ease, the disqualification was predicated upon the provisions of subdivision 6 of section 170 of the Code of Civil Procedure. In holding that there was no disqualification, the court said, at pages 7-8: