White

This was an action by the appellants, owners of a parcel of land in the State of Oregon, against the United States, to recover damages they claim to have suffered when their lands were deprived of water for a period of three weeks in July, 1946, because of breaks in the canal of the Owyhee Irrigation project. The project had been constructed by the United States pursuant to the Reclamation Act of 1902, 32 Stat. 388 , as supplemented and amended, 43 U.S.C.A. § 373 et seq. ,The Whites’ lands were irrigable under the project, and were within the boundaries of the Owyhee Irrigation District which had executed a contract with the United States in which, among other things, the District agreed to reimburse the United States for construction, operation and maintenance costs incurred by it in connection with the project

In appellants’ complaint liability was predicated upon specified acts of negligence charged in respect to the construction and maintenance of the canal by the United States, which the complaint asserts, gave rise to liability under the Tort Claims Act of August 2, 1946. *The pre-trial order, however, set forth that appellants claimed that under its contract with the…