Lindsay-Strathmore Irrigation District v. Wutchumna Water Co.

This is an appeal from an order and judgment of the Superior Court of Tulare County in a proceeding brought by the Lindsay-Strathmore Irrigation District, seeking the issuance of a writ of mandate to compel the Wutchumna Water Company to deliver to the petitioner, certain water from the main canal of said water company. It appears that the Kaweah River, shortly after it emerges from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, divides into two channels at a point known as “McKay Point”. Below that point the northerly channel is known as the St. Johns River and the southerly channel is known as the Kaweah River. Both of these channels run approximately parallel with each other in a general westerly direction, through the county of Tulare. These two channels traverse a large comparatively level delta area, comprising thousands of acres of land, which is known as the Kaweah Delta. The Wutchumna Water Company is a corporation of the type familiarly known as a mutual water company, although it is not strictly such a company, as its water is not appurtenant to any particular land. It was incorporated in 1872, its articles of incorporation beginning as follows: “We, the undersigned,…