John Phillip Zannaras, J. P. Robinson, Jr., and U.S. Tungsten Corporation v. Bagdad Corpper Corporation, a Corporation

This unusual dispute has been going on for at least twelve years. This is its third appearance in this court. In August of 1958 this court reversed a judgment below, and remanded the matter to the district court. Jurisdiction of this appeal rests on 28 U.S.C. § 1291 .

Appellants are Zannaras and Robinson, individually, and U. S. Tungsten Corporation, a corporation, of which the two individuals are owners and officers. Appellants will be herein sometimes referred to as Zannaras. Zannaras is the owner of a water certificate which entitles him to the beneficial use of three million gallons of water a year of water taken from Burro Creek, Arizona. Appellant Zan-naras has a mill on Burro Creek, which is at a location difficult of access, and which has been operated infrequently since it was erected in the early nineteen forties. Bagdad Copper Corporation, a corporation (sometimes herein referred to as Bagdad or appellee), has a water certificate entitling it to three hundred and fifteen million gallons of water a year to be taken from Burro Creek. Its diversion point is upstream from Zannaras’, but Bagdad’s taking is junior in time to Zan-naras’. Bagdad is a large copper company which…