Imperial Water Co. No. 1 v. Imperial Irrigation District

On the sixth day of July, 1917, Imperial Laguna Water Company entered into a contract with the United States Government with respect to the diversion and use of water from and of the Colorado River. By the terms of the contract, under certain conditions therein specified, the United States government had the right to cancel the contract. However, without a formal cancellation of that contract, on October 23, 1918, the United States government entered into another contract with a different company— the Imperial Irrigation District—-covering practically the same subject matter as did the former contract between the United States government and the Imperial Laguna Water Company. The respective rights of the two companies being in conflict, an effort was then made by the Irrigation District to have the contract between the United States government and the Laguna Company canceled by the United States government. Representatives of. each of the two companies were in attendance at Washington, D. C., for a considerable time, and, after a hearing before the Secretary of the Interior on the eighth and the ninth days of April, 1921, the Secretary of the Interior, on the tenth day of April,…