Stratton

The present action is one brought by appellant A. E. Stratton against the Mountain View Water Company, a corporation, to quiet title to a tract of land in the county of San Bernardino. In addition to the usual allegations of such a complaint, appellant alleged that the defendant company entered in and upon her lands, without right, and that it is “wrongfully operating a well thereon and conducting and removing a large quantity of water daily from said land by means of pumps and other machinery.”

By its answer the defendant Water Company denies that plaintiff is the owner of said lands to the exclusion of defendant, and by proper allegations sets up its claim of right to “develop, collect and take any and all water” on, in or under said lands. The defendant further avers that it is a mutual water company, and for more than twenty-five years last past had served its stockholders with irrigation water; which said water is used to irrigate citrus fruits on the lands of said stockholders, and it has expended large sums of money to develop an adequate water system and water supply for their use and benefit.

Defendant further specifically alleges that by a certain deed dated November…