Forest Lakes Mutual Water Co. v. Santa Cruz Land Title Co.

Plaintiffs obtained a permanent injunction against defendants enjoining the latter from taking water from Gold Gulch, a stream in the Santa Cruz mountains. Defendants had been conducting it over their lands and into another watershed for use upon lands not riparian to the stream. Defendants appeal upon a reporter’s and clerk’s transcript.

The defendants own a tract of land lying to the north of a line which runs in a general east and west direction. The plaintiffs own a tract of land lying south of that line. Most of the part of the stream involved here runs parallel to this line from west to east wholly on plaintiffs’ land. But the westerly or upper end of this stream flows down from a northwesterly direction through the lands of the defendants before it reaches the lands of the plaintiffs. This .upper part of the stream was sometimes referred to by some as the northwest fork of Gold Gulch and in more recent years by others as Limestone Brook. It is out of this fork that defendants were enjoined from taking water.

Both parties, plaintiffs and defendants, derive title to their respective lands from a common predecessor and grantor, F. A. Hihn, who owned the entire 1300 acres on…