Hi-Desert County Water District v. Blue Skies Country Club, Inc.

Blue Skies Country Club, Inc. (defendant), has appealed from a postjudgment order which purported to interpret the provisions of a stipulated judgment entered into in 1977 (hereinafter, the 1977 judgment), which delineated the respective rights of defendant and Hi-Desert County Water District (the District) in the water of the Warren Valley Basin. Such interpretation operated to impose the financing scheme, later advanced by the watermaster, under a so-called physical solution to the water shortage problem. We note in passing that the District is the watermaster which made the proposal adopted by the trial court.

Defendant correctly contends that the 1977 judgment finally adjudicated the rights of defendant as a overlying user with a prior right to 585 acre-feet per year. Thus, we hold that the order appealed from, which declared that all of the parties have rights which are equal in priority and that the watermaster may assess all users for water extractions above a party’s pro rata share of the basin’s supply, had the effect of improperly redefining the rights to the basin’s water in contravention of the 1977 judgment. We shall reverse the judgment…