Monroe

Plaintiff brought the. action to have defendants enjoined from diverting fourteen-fifteenths of the waters of Dodson Creek, in the county of Modoc, and to have it decreed that plaintiff was entitled to that quantity of water from said stream for the irrigation of certain lands owned by him. He claimed to be the owner of al[ of the waters of said stream by appropriation by his grantors, more than forty years prior to the commencement of the action, but alleged that he had permitted defendants to use one-fifteenth of said water for the purpose of irrigating a small garden and some fruit trees. Plaintiff also claimed ownership by prescription, alleging open, notorious, and adverse possession and the payment of all taxes levied against his water rights, dams, and ditches for more than five years preceding the commencement of the action.

By way of separate defense, defendants alleged in their answer that defendant, Mary A. Pleasants, and her grantors, for more than thirty-eight years prior to the commencement of the action, had been the owners of certain lands, sixty acres of which were riparian to the watershed of said Dodson Creek, and were entitled to the water thereof for purposes…