Ellingwood

The transcript in the above-entitled cause includes the record on appeal of nineteen actions consolidated for the purposes of trial. Five of these actions have been dismissed, leaving for oup present consideration the appeals in fourteen of said actions. For the purposes of convenience the defendants and respondents will hereafter be referred to as defendants and respondents, without naming the particular defendant or respondent, only in cases where necessity requires.

The actions are all eminent domain proceedings, instituted by the City of Stockton to acquire certain lands and premises to be used as a reservoir site.

In the year 1924, the voters of the City of Stockton, pursuant to an election had in accordance with the resolutions adopted by the City of Stockton, authorized a bond issue in the sum of $1,500,000, for the purpose of constructing a flood control dam on the Calaveras River, in the county of Calaveras. The defendants in the actions referred to are the owners of several tracts of land lying easterly of the site of the dam proposed to be erected for restraining and controlling the flood waters of said stream, which would, in part, be submerged in the event of the…