Kilkeary

The appellant, as plaintiff below, filed a complaint in the nature of a “bill of peace” seeking to avoid a multiplicity of legal actions by determining in one equity suit the liability asserted in hundreds of claims for damages resulting from floods of the Yuba River in the winter of 1950. The complaint was dismissed for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted and this appeal followed.

The material allegations of the complaint may be summarized as follows: Plaintiff is a citizen of the State of Maine; defendants are all citizens of the State of California; the amount in controversy exceeds $3,000; since March 18, 1905, the plaintiff has been engaged in mining gold by the dredging process in Yuba County; during the month of November, 1950, a series of storms brought heavy precipitation to the section of the Sierra Nevada from the Feather River on the north to the Kern River on the south; the rainfall caused the Yuba River to carry a greater volume of water than had ever before passed down the stream during its recorded history; the flood waters overflowed the south natural banks of the river and broke the south training wall — a cobble embankment that the…