Stuart

Plaintiffs and appellants Stuart and Norbury (“property owners”) own property in Camarillo. In September 1970, a fire burned "the Stuarts’ home,to the ground and destroyed avocado trees on the.Norburys’ property. The property owners sued Crestview Mutual Water Company (“water company”), for breach of a contract to furnish water and negligence in maintaining and operating the water system, Janss Investment Corporation (“developer”) and Jensen Associates (“engineers”) for negli gence in designing, engineering and constructing the water system. Various demurrers, motions for judgment on the pleadings or for summary judgment were filed by the defendants. All such motions were granted by the trial court, which gave judgment in favor of all the defendants involved in this appeal.

As is apparent (see fn. 1, supra) procedurally this case is a Chinese puzzle. Actually, however, the legal issues involved boil down to whether or not plaintiffs should have been permitted to file a first amended complaint. It is clear that the trial court would have given leave to file it, had it felt that it stated a cause of action against any defendant.

The proposed first amended complaint…