Olsen

This is an appeal on the part of the defendants George W. Olsen and Nelson A. Olsen, from a decree in a suit involving eminent domain.

The action was instituted by the state of California through its department of public works to condemn a strip of land in Plumas County for highway purposes. The appellants own a tract of land east of the town of Chester bordering on the northern shore of Lake Almanor in that county. The Great Western Power Company owns most of the land involved in this controversy. It was a party defendant in this action. That corporation had acquired water rights in and about Lake Almanor for hydro-electric power purposes, including the privilege of flooding the lands adjacent to the lake. The Power Company was about to construct a new dam at the southern extremity of the lake where it empties into the north branch of Feather River. It was anticipated this project would result in raising the water of Lake Almanor to the 4,500-foot contour which would submerge the then existing Red Bluffi-Susanville highway along the northern border of the lake and flood most of the land belonging to the appellants. The state therefore planned to improve the highway in that…