R. B. Rivers, Doing Business as Rivers Navigation Co. v. Idaho Power Company, a Corporation

Rivers carries the mail as a private contractor for the United States government for a distance of 87 miles by boat up the Snake River from Lewiston, Idaho, to Johnson’s Bar. Idaho Power, pursuant to a license issued in 1955 from the Federal Power Commission, has built three power dams above Johnson’s Bar on the Snake which impound water to discharge and make power. Obviously, the flow of the stream below the dams has been affected.

Rivers, plaintiff and appellant, claims that the reduction of the normal flow of the Snake has caused and will cause him great damage in his navigation of the stream with his boat during the five year period of his mail contract, commencing July 1, 1958.

The court granted Idaho Power’s motion to dismiss and its motion for summary judgment. We hold the judgment entered thereon was correct.

It is apparent Idaho Power’s license for the three dams, a subject of great controversy at the time, was granted almost three years prior to Rivers’ mail contract, the date of the latter in 1958 being the date of his commencement to be an owner of a business on the river.

Rivers did not plead that Idaho Power had failed to release the amount of water it was…