Lindsay-Strathmore Irrigation District v. Wutchumna Water Co.

The Lindsay-Strathmore Irrigation District filed an action in the Superior Court of Tulare County against the Wutchumna Water Company and James B. Rivers, seeking a writ of mandate to compel the delivery of certain water to which the irrigation district claimed to be entitled as a stockholder in the water company. The water company diverts a considerable portion of the water of the Kaweah River into what is known as the Wutchumna ditch, which runs in a general- westerly direction. A short distance below the point of that diversion the. Kaweah River divides into two channels, the northerly one being known as the St. Johns River, and the southerly one continuing as the Kaweah River. The St. Johns River flows in a westerly direction approximately parallel with the Wutchumna ditch, and only a short distance south of it. The complaint in this action alleges that the irrigation district is the owner of 16.33 shares of the capital stock of the water company, and that as such owner it is entitled to 16.33/91sts of all of the water from time to time flowing in the canal of said company; that it has constructed a side ditch for the purpose of receiving its share of such water, but that the…